Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Refuse

Re·fuse′ (r?·f?z′), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Refused (-f?zd′); p. pr. & vb. n. Refusing.] [F. refuser, either from (assumed) LL. refusare to refuse, v. freq. of L. refundere to pour back, give back, restore (see Refund to repay), or. fr. L. recusare to decline, refuse cf. Accuse, Ruse), influenced by L. refutare to drive back, repel, refute. Cf. Refute.] 1. To deny, as a request, demand, invitation, or command; to decline to do or grant.

That never yet refused your hest. Chaucer.

2. (Mil.) To throw back, or cause to keep back (as the center, a wing, or a flank), out of the regular aligment when troops are about to engage the enemy; as, to refuse the right wing while the left wing attacks.

3. To decline to accept; to reject; to deny the request or petition of; as, to refuse a suitor.

The cunning workman never doth refuse The meanest tool that he may chance to use. Herbert.

4. To disown. [Obs.] "Refuse thy name." Shak.

Re·fuse′, v. i. To deny compliance; not to comply.

Too proud to ask, too humble to refuse. Garth.

If ye refuse . . . ye shall be devoured with the sword. Isa. i. 20.

Re·fuse′, n. Refusal. [Obs.] Fairfax.

Ref′use (r?f′?s;277), n. [F. refus refusal, also, that which is refused. See Refuse to deny.] That which is refused or rejected as useless; waste or worthless matter.

Syn. — Dregs; sediment; scum; recrement; dross.

Ref′use, a. Refused; rejected; hence; left as unworthy of acceptance; of no value; worthless.

Everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. 1. Sam. xv. 9.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.