Search the Dictionary

Anything of a comparatively light and worthless character; the refuse part of anything. The chaff and ruin of the times. Shak.

n the needy or suffering for their relief; alms; any act of kindness. She did ill then to refuse her a charity. L'Estrange.

Choice there is not, unless the thing which we take be so in our power that we might have refused it. Hooker.

A kind of weak cider made by steeping the refuse pomace in water. Ciderkin is made for common drinking, and supplies the place of small beer. Mortimer.

To arrive in sight; to be manifest; to appear. Then butter does refuse to come. Hudibras.

or the marriage state; conjugal; nuptial. Nor Eve the rites Mysterious of connubial love refused. Milton. Kind, connubial tenderness. Goldsmith.

Soot; coal dust; refuse matter, as the dirty grease which comes from axle boxes, or the refuse at the mouth of an oven. Phillips. Bailey.

lf on the old tentants of his family, who, wretched as was their own condition, could not refuse a portion of their pittance to one whom they still regarded as their rightful lord. Macaulay.

Refuse wool. [Obs. or Prov.]

s was assiduous in paying his court to Tissaphernes." Jowett. -- To put out of court, to refuse further judicial hearing.

Food for dogs, made from the refuse of tallow melting.

Refuse timber, from which the best part has been culled out.

To refuse to recognize; to ignorre; as, to cut a person in the street; to cut one's acquaintance. [Colloq.]

Acoarse woolen fabric made of daglocks, or the refuse of wool. "Under coverlets made of dagswain." Holinshed.

reclude; to hinder from approach, entry, or enjoyment; to shut out or exclude; to deny or refuse; -- with from, and sometimes with of. Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed Labor, as to debar us when we need Refreshment. Milton. Their wages were so low as to debar them, not only from the comforts but from the commo…

To turn away; to shun; to refuse; -- the opposite of accept or consent; as, he declined, upon principle.

To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce. [Obs.] I defy the surety and the bond. Chaucer. For thee I have defied my constant mistress. Beau. & Fl.

To refuse (to do something or to accept something); to reject; to decline; to renounce. [Obs.] "If you deny to dance." Shak.

To refuse; to decline. [Obs.] "To detrect the battle." Holinshed.

he like. Grossest faults, or disabilities to perform what was covenanted. Milton. Chatham refused to see him, pleading his disability. Bancroft.