Synonyms for refuse

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verb

decline, reject, repudiate, deny, spurn, resist, repel, scorn, pass up, disallow, forbid, have no plans to, not anticipate, demur, protest, withdraw, hold back, withhold, shun, evade, dodge, ignore, turn down, turn from, recoil, balk, beg to be excused, send regrets, beg off, make one's excuses, regret, send off, not budge, cut out of the budget, not budget, not care to, refuse to receive, dispense with, not be at home to, disaccord with, dissent, say no, make excuses, disapprove, set aside, turn away, brush off*, not buy*, turn thumbs down*, hold out*, hold off*, turn one's back on*, turn a deaf ear to*; see also deny.

Antonyms allow*, admit, consent.

refuse is a direct, sometimes even blunt term, implying an emphatic denial of a request, demand, etc. to refuse a person money, to refuse permission; decline implies courtesy in expressing one's nonacceptance of an invitation, proposal, etc. he declined the nomination; reject stresses a negative or antagonistic attitude and implies positive refusal to accept, use, believe, etc. they rejected the damaged goods; repudiate implies the disowning, disavowal, or casting off with condemnation of a person or thing as having no authority, worth, validity, truth, etc. to repudiate the claims of faith healers; to spurn is to refuse or reject with contempt or disdain she spurned his attentions

noun

rubbish, litter, waste, leavings; see trash 1, 3.

See refuse in Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus II

verb

To be unwilling to accept, consider, or receive:
decline, dismiss, reject, spurn, turn down. (Slang) nix. Idiom: turn thumbs down on. See accept
To be unwilling to grant:
deny, disallow, turn down, withhold. See accept

See refuse in American Heritage Dictionary 4 Synonyms

refuse ¹decline reject spurn rebuff

These verbs all mean to be unwilling to accept, consider, or receive someone or something. Refuse usually implies determination and often brusqueness: “The commander . . . refused to discuss questions of right” (George Bancroft). “I'll make him an offer he can't refuse” (Mario Puzo).
To decline is to refuse courteously: “I declined election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters . . . and now I must decline the Pulitzer Prize” (Sinclair Lewis).
Reject suggests the discarding of someone or something as defective or useless; it implies categoric refusal: “He again offered himself for enlistment and was again rejected” (Arthur S.M. Hutchinson).
To spurn is to reject scornfully or contemptuously: “The more she spurns my love,/The more it grows” ( Shakespeare).
Rebuff pertains to blunt, often disdainful rejection: “He had . . . gone too far in his advances, and had been rebuffed” (Robert Louis Stevenson).

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