refusing

verb

present participle of refuse
1
as in denying
to be unwilling to grant the reclusive movie star usually refuses requests for interviews

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in rejecting
to show unwillingness to accept, do, engage in, or agree to she refused the award, citing the hard work of others who deserved the recognition more than she did

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of refusing But a few months after her first birthday, Karuna began refusing meals. — Raj Panjabi, Time, 13 Oct. 2026 Trump, in a Truth Social post, accused the media of hypocrisy for allegedly refusing to cover past purchases of Russian energy by the European Union. — Kevin Breuninger, CNBC, 12 Oct. 2026 Landowners are refusing survey access, organizing protests and challenging the project in court; a federal judge has temporarily halted construction as the administration appeals. — Rebecca Santana, Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2026 Frampton rejected the privacy justification and accused Washington officials of refusing to accommodate Keeler. — Jackson Thompson Outkick, FOXNews.com, 9 Oct. 2026 The town’s prosperity faded within decades of its 1908 founding, due to a local company refusing to supply water and the removal of the train stop to another town. — Anne Ewbank, Sacbee.com, 8 Oct. 2026 Chicago Public Schools should fight for every dollar Springfield owes us, while refusing to make promises to families based on money that has not actually been appropriated. — Claire Malon, Chicago Tribune, 8 Oct. 2026 The employer is, however, refusing to become London Living Wage accredited. — Hikmat Mohammed, ARTnews.com, 7 Oct. 2026 But like in May, Ukraine’s European allies are refusing to heed the Kremlin’s call to abandon the city. — Yuliya Talmazan, NBC news, 5 Oct. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for refusing
  1. denying
  2. rejecting
  3. declining
  4. ignoring
Verb
  • Russian forces are also trying to choke shipping in Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea, denying Kyiv vital grain export revenue.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 7 Oct. 2026
  • There’s no denying that Nothing knows how to make eye-catching headphones.
    — Brad Bourque, The Verge, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of denying
Verb
  • This may involve rejecting a command, removing write access, isolating the AI, transferring control back to the operator or moving equipment into a safe state.
    — Gregory Shahnovsky, Forbes.com, 13 Oct. 2026
  • The sense was that the people who were rejecting the Keynesian model were throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
    — Greg Rosalsky, NPR, 13 Oct. 2026
Definition of rejecting
Verb
  • Only its convenient foods division in Europe, the Middle East and Africa reported declining volume, of 1%.
    — Amelia Lucas, CNBC, 8 Oct. 2026
  • Since the 1960s, bowling as a business has fallen, with the number of bowling centers in the United States declining by roughly 75% from a peak of about 12,000 to some 3,000.
    — Eric Adler, Kansas City Star, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of declining
Verb
  • October 06, 2026 Optimism isn’t about ignoring problems or pretending everything will work out.
    — Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Review, 6 Oct. 2026
  • Sutskever is the moral center of the film and grows increasingly uncomfortable as Altman forges ahead with complicated AI models that have learned how to lie, willfully ignoring risks.
    — Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of ignoring

Browse Nearby Words

refuses
refusing
refutable
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Cite this Entry

“Refusing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/refusing. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.

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