🙅 Refused to 🚫 Was not going to

would not

1.0

To refuse to do something in the past

phrasal verb

: no

He would not accept the offer, no matter how much they insisted.

Examples

She would not answer any questions about the incident.
He would not listen!
If it rained, the picnic would not take place as planned.
She would not go.
He would not accept the offer, no matter how much they insisted.
She would not answer any questions about the incident.
If it rained, the picnic would not take place as planned.

Antonyms

consenting

3.9

People who have given permission after thinking about it

Surface Forms

would not infinitive

Morphology

would + not

The meaning is directly compositional: 'would' (past/conditional form of will) combined with 'not' (negation) yields the negative past/future-in-past sense. This is a grammatical, predictable combination (not an idiom) and has clear cross-linguistic parallels, so a B1 learner who knows both words will understand the MWE.

Etymology

Would not comes from an older use of would that meant 'want' or 'wish', so would not originally meant 'did not want' to do something. Imagine someone turning away or saying no again and again — that image explains why it now means 'to refuse' or be unwilling.