How to Use refuse in a Sentence

refuse

1 of 2 verb
  • They asked her to help but she refused.
  • When they offered me the money, I couldn't refuse.
  • The union refused to sign, and Mailchimp pulled its business.
    Ariel Shapiro, The Verge, 14 Dec. 2023
  • At first, the French refused to recognize the new state.
    Matthew Brown, Washington Post, 24 Mar. 2024
  • Schumer has also refused to bring H.R. 2 to the Senate floor for a vote.
    Cami Mondeaux, Washington Examiner, 9 Nov. 2023
  • When the president refused to resign, the military shelled the palace from the air and the ground.
    Ariel Dorfman, The New York Review of Books, 31 Aug. 2023
  • Neal refused to do that for the most part, which led to a fight that was not exciting.
    Trent Reinsmith, Forbes, 18 Feb. 2024
  • Much like the rest of the book, this piece refuses simple answers.
    Ilana Masad, Los Angeles Times, 5 Feb. 2024
  • The issue reached the high court because the appeals court refused to grant the delay that Trump has sought.
    Mark Sherman, Fortune, 28 Feb. 2024
  • The issue reached the high court because the appeals court refused to grant the delay that Mr. Trump had sought.
    Mark Sherman, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 Feb. 2024
  • Many of Ukraine’s elderly have refused to leave no matter how bad the war gets.
    Washington Post, 5 Feb. 2024
  • Because after the first few months of the strike, [Colbert’s wife] Evie refused to keep chanting my name.
    Michael Schneider, Variety, 3 Oct. 2023
  • But the ultrasound tech refused to sign off on the exception.
    Nadine El-Bawab, ABC News, 12 Sep. 2023
  • The president has long refused to curb the arms flow to influence Israel’s approach to the war.
    Peter Baker, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2024
  • The man refused to take field sobriety tests, so police tried to place him in handcuffs.
    Bob Sandrick, cleveland, 31 Aug. 2023
  • The film, however, wasn't able to use the track because Prince’s estate refused to give O’Connor the rights to use her version of the power ballad for the film.
    Liza Esquibias, Peoplemag, 26 July 2023
  • Some survivors refused to open up, even after the army arrived.
    Ronen Bergman, New York Times, 13 Oct. 2023
  • The other part, thank heaven, refuses to think this through.
    Konstantin Kakanias, Town & Country, 14 June 2023
  • For years, Suarez has refused to disclose his client list, or much of anything about his private work.
    Joey Flechas, Miami Herald, 5 Feb. 2024
  • There was comfort for Onana in that his manager Erik ten Hag refused to blame the goalkeeper when asked by the press.
    Zak Garner-Purkis, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2023
  • Some Republicans think Jordan plans to use a floor vote to put pressure on the 55 hold-outs who refused to back him.
    Eden Villalovas, Washington Examiner, 14 Oct. 2023
  • Still, Krebs refuses to give up on his heritage, culture and faith.
    Kylie Martin, Detroit Free Press, 12 Mar. 2024
  • Or members will refuse to override any veto that White might have issued by then.
    Mike Hendricks, Kansas City Star, 25 Mar. 2024
  • Cuyahoga County officials refused to again sell bonds backed by the sin tax, forcing the teams to front the money for the repairs.
    Lucas Daprile, cleveland, 19 Aug. 2023
  • MacDonald joined the effort to bring lifeguards to South Haven after the drownings and said the city has refused to listen to the experts for decades.
    Jennifer Dixon, Detroit Free Press, 23 Mar. 2024
  • The governors have given varying reasons for refusing to take part, from the price tag to the fact that the final details of the plan have yet to be worked out.
    Annie Gowen, Washington Post, 10 Jan. 2024
  • The Dodgers wisely refused, but teammate Pee Wee Reese told him the rest of the players were tired of his outbursts and his constant complaining.
    Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 4 Oct. 2023
  • But the family refused, opting to hold out for a better offer.
    Amrita Khalid, The Verge, 22 Dec. 2023
  • Those who refused to leave were arrested by law enforcement and removed from our offices.
    Britney Nguyen, Quartz, 18 Apr. 2024
  • Some of the new material has value, particularly middle chapters that focus on Durst’s remaining friends, and how and why these people refuse to cut him off despite the mounting evidence of his guilt.
    Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 18 Apr. 2024
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refuse

2 of 2 noun
  • The best way to avoid those clogs is to close the sink drain during a shave, then wipe up the refuse and throw it in the trash.
    Rachel Kurzius, Washington Post, 25 May 2023
  • The best way to avoid those clogs is to close the sink drain during a shave, then wipe up the refuse and throw it in the trash. 3.
    Rachel Kurzius, Anchorage Daily News, 30 May 2023
  • The refuse and yard waste sticker would stay at $2.75 for the duration of the contract.
    Steve Lord, chicagotribune.com, 8 Dec. 2021
  • The garbage trucks rumble along the quays picking up the refuse from the revelry the night before.
    Elaine Sciolino, New York Times, 4 Nov. 2019
  • Ron Popeil, who died in July at 86, perfected the art of the hard sell, the refuse-to-let-you-move-on.
    Rick Kogan, chicagotribune.com, 16 Dec. 2021
  • Although the trail has been open for less than two weeks, the path is already littered with refuse.
    Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, 15 Apr. 2023
  • There is not a speck of refuse, not a piece of paper, not a thrown away plastic bottle.
    Richard Quest and Joe Minihane, CNN, 13 Apr. 2021
  • Until the program can be restarted, all the city’s refuse will be sent to landfills.
    Anne Nickoloff, cleveland, 6 Aug. 2021
  • Can a business refuse service to someone who won’t wear a mask?
    Hannah K. Sparling, The Enquirer, 8 July 2020
  • The density of refuse reflects the number of people who’ve walked the route over the last decade – some of whom did not make it out.
    Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, 15 Apr. 2023
  • Finally, keep an eye out for bags of leaves foolish people put on the curb for the refuse folks.
    Jeff Lowenfels, Anchorage Daily News, 29 Apr. 2021
  • María’s alone, peering at other children at the top of a mountain of refuse.
    Holly Jones, Variety, 17 Sep. 2022
  • No refuse sticker will be required during the two weeks.
    Beacon-News Staff, chicagotribune.com, 31 Dec. 2020
  • No refuse sticker will be needed to dispose of the trees during the program.
    Beacon-News Staff, chicagotribune.com, 23 Dec. 2021
  • The court heard that her body was found in a builder's refuse bag, and identified using dental records..
    Ben Makori and William James, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 Mar. 2021
  • Workers used brooms to sweep the street and sidewalk, and had large yellow trash cans for throwing out refuse.
    Sean Cotter, BostonGlobe.com, 1 May 2023
  • Usually, this takes the form of a bigger bin or heap in the ground where your refuse can decompose.
    Jakob Schiller, Outside Online, 1 Mar. 2020
  • The only visible life was goats, pigs and a few people poking through the refuse.
    Washington Post, 26 Nov. 2020
  • And the city’s refuse and recycling contract is for $2.5 million.
    Brian Lisik, cleveland, 3 Nov. 2020
  • Spawned when the body trashes old red blood cells, the molecule is harmful refuse and a sign of illness.
    Bymitch Leslie, science.org, 8 June 2023
  • City employees pitched in to help pick up refuse until a new union contract was signed Jan. 17.
    Phil Diehl, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 Feb. 2022
  • Greig hadn’t exactly set out to run a hospice for the wretched refuse of the canine universe.
    Susan Orlean, The New Yorker, 12 July 2022
  • Sanitation picks up the refuse three time a week and dumps it at the Waste Management landfill.
    Rebecca Rosenberg, Fox News, 3 Nov. 2022
  • The school’s windows were shattered, and chunks of metal and other refuse littered a courtyard.
    Michael Schwirtz, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2022
  • Some on the right refuse to modify their views, however.
    John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2022
  • It was eaten away by rats and cockroaches, but Lai saw the gold parts were still intact, glittering in the refuse.
    Aja Gabel, Los Angeles Times, 22 Aug. 2022
  • Smells from the refuse regularly wafted through the campground.
    Zak Podmore, The Salt Lake Tribune, 24 May 2021
  • The hinge slab pivots on the building side so that as the refuse settles, the grade beam sinks too, though without causing structural damage.
    Dylan Taylor-Lehman, Popular Mechanics, 29 July 2021
  • Transients often take shelter or sleep under the interstate there, which accounts for a large part of the refuse, the city said.
    Andrew Canulette | Staff Writer, NOLA.com, 19 Aug. 2020
  • Across the city, residential trash pickup in many cases was canceled, delaying refuse removal schedules by one day for the remainder of the week.
    David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times, 9 Aug. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'refuse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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