refuse

To refuse is to say "no." A person who refuses does not cooperate or participate in an activity largely out of principal or a strongly held belief, but sometimes a person refuses to do something out of fear or caution.

• I refuse.
• I refuse to do that.
• I absolutely refuse to do that. I won’t do it.
• She refuses to go along with the idea.
• She refused to do what everyone else was doing.
• The children refused to eat their broccoli.
• The students refused to cooperate with the teacher.
• Kevin refuses to believe that climate change is affected by human activity.
• If someone asks you to do something that you don’t want to do, just refuse.

He refuses to wear shoes.

The word "refusal" is a noun:

• The woman’s refusal to cooperate with the police resulted in a night in jail.
• The child’s refusal to eat his vegetables was met with a stony silence from his mother.
• When the young man asked the girl to go out with him, he expected a refusal but instead was surprised by her quick acceptance.

The word "refuse" is a noun. Refuse is garbage. The meaning and pronunciation of "refuse" is different from "refuse," but both words are spelled the same way.

• Please put your refuse in the garbage bins.
• The park was strewn with refuse following the concert.
• "Give me the tired, the poor…the wretched refuse of your teeming shore." (an exerpt from The New Collosus.)

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July 27, 2019