reject

[ri-jekt, ree-jekt]

verb (used with object)

1. to refuse to have, take, recognize, etc..

   to reject the offer of a better job.

   Synonyms: deny

2. to refuse to grant (a request, demand, etc.).

   Synonyms: deny

3. to refuse to accept (someone or something); rebuff.

   The other children rejected him. The publisher rejected the author's latest novel.

   Synonyms: renounce, repel

4. to discard as useless or unsatisfactory.

   The mind rejects painful memories.

   Synonyms: jettison, eliminate

5. to cast out or eject; vomit.

6. to cast out or off.

7. 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

1. something rejected, as an imperfect article.

   Synonyms: second

reject

verb

1. to refuse to accept, acknowledge, use, believe, etc

2. to throw out as useless or worthless; discard

3. to rebuff (a person)

4. (of an organism) to fail to accept (a foreign tissue graft or organ transplant) because of immunological incompatibility

noun

1. something rejected as imperfect, unsatisfactory, or useless

Other Word Forms

• rejectable adjective
• rejecter noun
• rejective adjective
• prereject verb (used with object)
• quasi-rejected adjective
• unrejectable adjective
• unrejected adjective
• unrejective adjective
• rejection noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of reject¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of reject¹

C15: from Latin rēicere to throw back, from _re- + jacere to hurl

Synonym Study

See refuse ¹.

Example Sentences

The law will come into force unless a majority of participants, representing at least 20 percent of the 1.7 million eligible voters, rejects it.

Read more on Barron's

If I had acted earlier, the reason, in all likelihood, never would have surfaced, and Karen wouldn’t have been rejected.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

He is one of several Iranian Christian converts who spoke to the BBC - most anonymously out of fear for relatives back home - whose asylum claims have been rejected in the past year.

Read more on BBC

She rejects both of these descriptions of her.

Read more on BBC

New York’s environmental regulators who previously rejected the pipeline said in September it is needed to maintain a reliable gas system.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• deny 
• dismiss 
• rebuff 
• refuse 
• renounce 
• repudiate 
• scrap 
• spurn 
• turn down 
• veto