refuse

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   refuse to accept

   I refused their offer of hospitality.

2. 2
   verb

   To decline (a request or demand).

   My request for a pay rise was refused.

3. 3
   verb

   To decline a request or demand, forbear; to withhold permission.

   I refuse to listen to this nonsense any more.

4. 4
   verb

   To withhold (something) from (someone); to not give it to them or to bar them from having it.

   If we bang or scream they will spray us with some pepper or something else that's in an aeresol ^([sic]) can, and they wear gas masks, while the rest of us have to breathe the fumes in, and it makes us very sick and they refuse us medical treatment.

5. 5
   verb

   To throw back, or cause to keep back (as the centre, a wing, or a flank), out of the regular alignment when troops are about to engage the enemy.

   to refuse the right wing while the left wing attacks

6. 6
   verb

   To disown.

   Refuse thy name.

7. 7
   noun

   refusal

   This ſpoken, readie with a proud refuſe [...]

8. 8
   noun

   food that is discarded (as from a kitchen)

Etymology

From Middle English refusen, from Old French refuser, from Vulgar Latin *refūsāre, a blend of Classical Latin refūtāre (whence also refute) and recūsāre (whence also recuse).