refuse

«refuse» in Mova's school dictionary: to say no, or to not do something you are asked to do — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (refuse, refuses, refused, refusing — stress on «fuse»); noun (refuse — stress on «ref», means rubbish)

meaning for a pupil

1) To refuse means to say no, or to not do something you are asked to do. tree →

2) To refuse something means to not accept it: she refused the offer. tree →

3) As a noun (said REF-yoos), refuse means rubbish or waste. tree →

sense in the lessons

In safety lessons refusing is a strong skill: you can refuse to go with a stranger, refuse to keep an unsafe secret, and refuse to join in bullying. In stories a character who refuses shows they are stubborn, brave or angry. In everyday life a «refuse collection» is the rubbish collection (UK). Phrases: refuse to, refuse an offer, flatly refuse.

examples

• He refused to share his toys. tree →
• It's okay to refuse if someone asks you to do something unsafe. tree →
• The dog refused to eat its dinner. tree →
• She refused the sweets because she had an allergy. tree →
• The donkey refused to move. tree →
• The refuse lorry takes away the rubbish on Mondays. tree →
• I asked him to stop, but he refused. tree →
• You can refuse a hug if you don't want one. tree →
• At first I refused to go. tree →

note

Two words spelled the same: re-FUSE (verb, say no) and REF-use (noun, rubbish). Use «refuse to» + verb: «refused to go». The noun for the act of saying no is «refusal». Politely refusing: «No, thank you».

In the corpora

• Refusing to admit you are lost or wrong is pride; too much pride makes it hard to ask for help or say sorry.
• Some are advice for parents; some are the law, and a cinema can refuse to let you in.
• Companies set safety rules for what their bots should not do, so a bot may politely refuse a request.
• Bots can be tricked into saying hurtful things, so you notice tricks, politely refuse and stay kind.
• A message pretending to be a bank is a scam that can make real people lose money, so you refuse to write one.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «refuse» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.