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Glite Dictionary
🚫 To refuse 🦠 To resist (body) 🙅 An outcast
to reject

to reject

38 7.7
Fail to accept a transplanted organ because the body attacks it
  • verb
  • /rɪˈdʒɛkt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : rechazar
  • Her body had a way of rejecting anything foreign; she had known that too.

Examples

  • Antibody levels were so elevated she was in danger of rejecting any donor heart.

    DeathBed (2002)

  • And if two transplants have been rejected, what is your course of action?

    Critical Care (1997)

  • It's not murder, since her body had already rejected it and it was dying.

    Blog text (17)

  • Eventually, however, the mother begins to reject her cub's attempts to nurse.

    Academic text (1998)

  • Her body keeps rejecting them.

    Derailed (2005)

  • His stomach began to reject the goat meat, and his bowels became sore.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • My father's immune system continues to reject the 112 virus, rendering the gene therapy obsolete.

    Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

  • He's rejecting the transplant.

    Touched (2005)

  • The patient was worried that her body might reject the new organ after the transplant.

  • Doctors monitored her closely to ensure that she did not reject the donated tissue.

Synonyms

to resist
vsto reject
61 3.0

Hold up against stains, heat or storms

describes an immune reaction that actively attacks a transplanted organ
to refuse
vsto reject
  • Specialized
18 9.6

To reject a transplanted organ when the body attacks it

describes the same event but stresses the organ being seen as foreign

Antonyms

to accept
75 2.7

To be able to receive something, for example a cable or signal

How Accepted

to accept
75 2.7
to tolerate
  • Specialized
31 4.5
to reject
  • Specialized
38 7.7

Surface Forms

reject infinitive
rejected past
rejected past participle
rejecting present participle
rejects third person singular

Morphology

reject = re + ject

The medical sense is an application of the verb 'reject' (re- + ject), but because 'ject' is not an independent English word the composition is only semi-transparent to average learners.

Etymology

In medicine the word reject uses the same idea: re- 'back' and -ject 'to throw', so the body is said to 'throw back' a new organ by attacking it. That's why doctors say a body 'rejected' a transplant when it will not accept it.