reject
[verb ri-jekt; noun ree-jekt]
- to refuse to have, take, recognize, etc.: to reject the offer of a better job.
- to refuse to grant (a request, demand, etc.).
- 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.
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- something rejected, as an imperfect article.
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Origin of reject
1485–95; (v.) < Latin rējectus, past participle of rējicere to throw back, equivalent to re- re- + jec-, combining form of jacere to throw + -tus past participle suffix
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
refusespurnrenouncevetoscrapdismissdenyrepudiaterebuffrepulseshedburndespisedisbelievekillexcludedeclineseconddiscrediteliminateExamples from the Web for reject
Contemporary Examples
As Assaf put it, “this is one way to reject extremism and make it so the people are not afraid.”
And I was wondering how you combat that impulse to reject the young?
His Mormon faith was no reason to reject his candidacy, he argued.
I reject angrily authority that exists without my respect.
The problem for concerned people was not merely to do the obvious thing and reject apartheid, but to decide what to do about it.
Historical Examples
But once enticed into the parlour he did not reject the food set before him.
The Secret AgentJoseph Conrad
And in this thought he did not reject the invitations pressed on him.
Night and Morning, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
And under what pretence can you embrace the one, while you reject the other?
Miss Gunn, do you really wish me to understand that you reject me?
Hetty's Strange HistoryAnonymous
Consider this before, unworthy as I am, you reject me from your esteem.
Tales And Novels, Volume 8 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
reject
- 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
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- something rejected as imperfect, unsatisfactory, or useless
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Word Origin
C15: from Latin rēicere to throw back, from re- + jacere to hurl
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for reject
n.
1550s, "a castaway" (rare), from reject (v.). Modern use probably a re-formation of the same word: "thing cast aside as unsatisfactory" (1893); "person considered low-quality and worthless" (1925, from use in militaries).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
reject
(rĭ-jĕkt′)- To refuse to accept, submit to, believe, or use something.
- To discard as defective or useless; throw away.
- To spit out or vomit.
- To resist immunologically introduction of a transplanted organ or tissue; fail to accept in one's body.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.