Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To fuse or melt again.
  • noun That which is refused or rejected; waste or useless matter; the worst or meanest part; rubbish.
  • noun Synonyms Dregs, scum, dross, trash, rubbish.
  • Refused; rejected; hence, worthless; of no value: as, the refuse parts of stone or timber.
  • In chess, same as decline, 10.
  • noun A refusal.
  • To deny, as a request, demand, or invitation; decline to do or grant: as, to refuse admittance; she refused herself to callers.
  • To decline to accept; reject: as, to refuse an office; to refuse an offer.
  • To disown; disavow; forsake.
  • Milit., to hold (troops) back, or move (them) back from the regular alinement, when about to engage the enemy in battle. In the oblique order of battle, if either flank attack, the other flank is refused.
  • Fail to receive; resist; repel.
  • Synonyms and Decline, Refuse, Reject, Repel, and Rebuff are in the order of strength.
  • To decline to accept or consent; fail to comply.

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

  • intransitive verb To deny compliance; not to comply.
  • transitive verb To deny, as a request, demand, invitation, or command; to decline to do or grant.
  • transitive verb (Mil.) To throw back, or cause to keep back (as the center, a wing, or a flank), out of the regular aligment when troops ar� about to engage the enemy.
  • transitive verb To decline to accept; to reject; to deny the request or petition of.
  • transitive verb obsolete To disown.
  • noun obsolete Refusal.
  • noun That which is refused or rejected as useless; waste or worthless matter.
  • adjective Refused; rejected; hence; left as unworthy of acceptance; of no value; worthless.

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

  • adjective Discarded, rejected.
  • noun Collectively, items or material that have been discarded; rubbish, garbage.
  • verb transitive To decline (a request or demand).
  • verb intransitive To decline a request or demand, forbear; to withhold permission.

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
  • verb refuse entrance or membership
  • verb refuse to let have
  • verb elude, especially in a baffling way
  • verb show unwillingness towards
  • noun food that is discarded (as from a kitchen)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Apparently from Old French refuse (French refusé), past participle of refuser ("to refuse"), as Etymology 2, below.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French refuser, from Vulgar Latin *refusare, a blend of Classical Latin refutō and recusō.

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  • Trash vs. turn down.

    November 24, 2007