Refuse

How to spell refuse

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce refuse

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does refuse mean?

1. verbTo decline or reject something, or to be unwilling to do something.
2. nounRubbish or waste material that has been thrown away.

Refuse in a sentence

• verb

  The bank may refuse the loan if your income is too low.

• noun

  The council collects household refuse every Tuesday morning.

• verb

  She decided to refuse the job offer and stay in her current role.

• noun

  Piles of refuse had built up outside the flats during the strike.

Where does refuse come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the 1300s from the Old French verb refuser, meaning 'to decline' or 'to reject'. Its Latin background is a little tangled: scholars trace it to a blend of recusare, 'to object to' or 'to decline', and refutare, 'to drive back' or 'to rebut', both of which carry the sense of pushing something away. The prefix re- means 'back', and the verb came to mean turning an offer back rather than accepting it. From the same family English also gained the noun refuse, meaning what has been rejected or thrown out, that is, rubbish; this is why the rubbish sense is stressed on the first syllable, REF-use, while the act of declining is stressed on the second, re-FUSE. The shared spelling but shifted stress makes refuse a classic heteronym, with the trap lying not in the letters but in which syllable you hear.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• fuse (from Latin fundere/refundere: to pour back, or recusare: to decline)