reject
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to refuse to have, take, recognize, etc..
to reject the offer of a better job.
- Synonyms:
- deny
-
to refuse to grant (a request, demand, etc.).
- Synonyms:
- deny
-
to refuse to accept (someone or something); rebuff.
The other children rejected him. The publisher rejected the author's latest novel.
-
to discard as useless or unsatisfactory.
The mind rejects painful memories.
-
to cast out or eject; vomit.
-
to cast out or off.
-
Medicine/Medical. (of a human or other animal) to have an immunological reaction against (a transplanted organ or grafted tissue).
If tissue types are not matched properly, a patient undergoing a transplant will reject the graft.
noun
verb
-
to refuse to accept, acknowledge, use, believe, etc
-
to throw out as useless or worthless; discard
-
to rebuff (a person)
-
(of an organism) to fail to accept (a foreign tissue graft or organ transplant) because of immunological incompatibility
noun
Related Words
See refuse 1.
Other Word Forms
- prereject verb (used with object)
- quasi-rejected adjective
- rejectable adjective
- rejecter noun
- rejection noun
- rejective adjective
- unrejectable adjective
- unrejected adjective
- unrejective adjective
Etymology
Origin of reject
First recorded in 1485–95; (verb) from Latin rējectus, past participle of rējicere “to throw back,” equivalent to re- re- + jec-, combining form of jacere “to throw” + -tus past participle suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But last month, the California Public Utilities Commission unanimously rejected that agreement, citing concerns about reliability of the grid to deliver electricity.
From Los Angeles Times
In a move that was criticized at the time, Hellerstein rejected a proposed settlement—even though both sides agreed to it.
‘He even bragged about his Mercedes-Benz:’ I rejected two egotistical advisers.
From MarketWatch
The justices said the domestic abuser ban fit in a larger historical tradition of banning dangerous people from guns — explicitly rejecting the idea that lawmakers today must show a “historical twin.”
From Los Angeles Times
The people of Greenland, whose autonomous government, elected last year, firmly rejected Washington’s entreaties, hold full Danish—and therefore European Union—citizenship.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
