rejection

[ri-jek-shuhn]

noun

1. the act or process of rejecting.

   Synonyms: elimination, dismissal, refusal

2. the state of being rejected.

   Synonyms: elimination, dismissal, refusal

3. something that is rejected.

rejection

1. A process in which the immune system of a body attacks an organ or tissue, either its own or tissue transplanted into it from another organism. (See xenotransplantation.)

Rejection is the most serious problem faced in surgery involving organ transplants. Drugs are used to suppress the immune system after organ transplant in order to prevent the rejection of and eventual death of the transplanted tissue.

Other Word Forms

• nonrejection noun
• prerejection noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of rejection¹

First recorded in 1545–55; from Latin rējectiōn-, stem of rējectiō “a throwing back”; equivalent to reject + -ion

Example Sentences

Even if conversion therapy is well-intended — and it very often is not — it’s experienced by children as a form of parental rejection.

Read more on Salon

The movement's carefully crafted statement - thought to have been drafted with the help of mediators - stopped short of outright rejection and instead offered a qualified "yes".

Read more on BBC

"I think they are trying to physically display their rejection of certain politics," she says, "that they're not part of the growing number of misogynistic, right-wing, ideologised men you see at the minute."

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Devastated by what she saw as her mother's "rejection", she left the courtroom.

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A nominee’s ideology was not treated as legitimate grounds for rejection.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• elimination 
• exclusion 
• repudiation 
• veto