What is the difference between refuse and decline?
refuse | decline |
(UK) Collectively, items or material that have been discarded; rubbish, garbage.
To decline (a request or demand).
* Bible, Isa. i. 20
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=September 27
, author=Alistair Magowan
, title=Bayern Munich 2 - 0 Man City
, work=BBC Sport
To decline a request or demand, forbear; to withhold permission.
(military) To throw back, or cause to keep back (as the centre, a wing, or a flank), out of the regular alignment when troops are about to engage the enemy.
(obsolete) To disown.
* Shakespeare
Downward movement, fall.(rfex)
A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road.(rfex)
(senseid)A weakening.(rfex)
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
, author=Philip E. Mirowski
, title=Harms to Health from the Pursuit of Profits
, volume=100, issue=1, page=87
, magazine=
A reduction or diminution of activity.
*
To move downwards, to fall, to drop.
To become weaker or worse.
To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.
* Thomson
* Spenser
To cause to decrease or diminish.
* Beaumont and Fletcher
* Burton
To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw.
* Bible, Psalms cxix. 157
To refuse, forbear.
* Massinger
* , chapter=7
, title= To inflect for case, number and sometimes gender.
* Ascham
(by extension) To run through from first to last; to repeat like a schoolboy declining a noun.
(American football) To reject a penalty against the opposing team, usually because the result of accepting it would benefit the non-penalized team less than the preceding play.
Decline is a synonym of refuse.
In transitive terms the difference between refuse and decline
is that refuse is to decline (a request or demand) while decline is to refuse, forbear.In intransitive terms the difference between refuse and decline
is that refuse is to decline a request or demand, forbear; to withhold permission while decline is to become weaker or worse.As an adjective refuse
is discarded, rejected.refuse
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) .Noun
(-)Synonyms
* discards * garbage (US ) * rubbish (UK ) * trash (US ) * See alsoEtymology 2
From (etyl) refuser, from .Verb
(refus)- My request for a pay rise was refused .
- I refuse to listen to this nonsense any more.
- If ye refuse ye shall be devoured with the sword.
citation, page= , passage=City were outclassed thereafter and Roberto Mancini said that substitute Carlos Tevez refused to play.}}
- I asked the star if I could have her autograph, but she refused .
- to refuse the right wing while the left wing attacks
- Refuse thy name.
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . SeeSynonyms
* (decline) decline, reject, nill, say no to, turn down, veto, withsake * (decline a request or demand) say no, forbeardecline
English
Noun
(en noun)citation, passage=In an era when political leaders promise deliverance from decline through America’s purported preeminence in scientific research, the news that science is in deep trouble in the United States has been as unwelcome as a diagnosis of leukemia following the loss of health insurance.}}
- It is also pertinent to note that the current obvious decline in work on holarctic hepatics most surely reflects a current obsession with cataloging and with nomenclature of the organisms—as divorced from their study as living entities.
Antonyms
* inclineVerb
(declin)- in melancholy deep, with head declined
- And now fair Phoebus gan decline in haste / His weary wagon to the western vale.
- You have declined his means.
- He knoweth his error, but will not seek to decline it.
- a line that declines from straightness
- conduct that declines from sound morals
- Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.
- Could I decline this dreadful hour?
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=“[…] This is Mr. Churchill, who, as you are aware, is good enough to come to us for his diaconate, and, as we hope, for much longer; and being a gentleman of independent means, he declines to take any payment.” Saying this Walden rubbed his hands together and smiled contentedly.}}
- after the first declining of a noun and a verb
- (Shakespeare)
- The team chose to decline the fifteen-yard penalty because their receiver had caught the ball for a thirty-yard gain.