Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To refuse to accept, submit to, believe, or make use of: synonym: refuse.
  • transitive verb To refuse to consider or grant; deny.
  • transitive verb To turn down (an applicant, as for a job); refuse to accept.
  • transitive verb To refuse to accept (someone) as a lover, spouse, or friend; rebuff.
  • transitive verb To refuse to give sufficient parental affection or care to (a child or young animal).
  • transitive verb To spit out or vomit.
  • transitive verb Medicine To resist immunologically the introduction of (a transplanted organ or tissue); fail to accept as part of one's own body.
  • noun One that has been rejected.
  • noun Slang A foolish or socially inept person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To throw or cast back.
  • To throw away, as anything undesirable or useless; cast off; discard: as, to pick out the good and reject the bad; to reject a lover.
  • To refuse to receive; decline haughtily or harshly; slight; despise.
  • Synonyms To throw aside, cast off. See refuse.
  • noun That which is rejected or thrown out; a cull; specifically, in prehistoric archæol., an unfinished stone implement, spoiled or broken in the process of manufacture.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To cast from one; to throw away; to discard.
  • transitive verb To refuse to receive or to acknowledge; to decline haughtily or harshly; to repudiate.
  • transitive verb To refuse to grant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive to refuse to accept
  • verb sports to block a shot, especially if it sends the ball off the court.
  • noun Something that is rejected.
  • noun derogatory slang An unpopular person.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb resist immunologically the introduction of some foreign tissue or organ
  • verb refuse to accept or acknowledge
  • verb reject with contempt
  • verb refuse entrance or membership
  • verb deem wrong or inappropriate
  • noun the person or thing that is rejected or set aside as inferior in quality
  • verb refuse to accept
  • verb dismiss from consideration or a contest

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English rejecten, from Latin rēicere, rēiect- : re-, re- + iacere, to throw; see yē- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Middle English rejecten, from Latin rēiectus, past participle of rēicere, "to throw back", from rē-, back, + iacere, to throw. Displaced native Middle English forwerpen ("to reject") (from Old English forweorpan), Middle English forcasten ("to reject, throw away") (from Old Norse forkasta), Middle English skirpen ("to reject, spew out") (from Old Norse skirpa ("to reject, spit out")), Middle English wernen ("to refuse, reject") (from Old English wiernan ("to refuse, reject")), Middle English withchosen, withchesen ("to reject, choose against") (from Old English wiþċēosan ("to reject")).

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