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

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

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

Successive Israeli governments rejected Shin Bet recommendations to target Hamas leaders, lest the country be drawn into conflict.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

In addition, research finds that employees with more expertise than their peers are significantly better at accepting AI recommendations when they are correct and, more important, rejecting them when they are wrong.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Charles de Gaulle rejected a possible Franco-German nuclear weapon to pursue an exclusively French bomb “which is not so much security as independence, a diplomatic advantage that reinforces the status” of France.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Islamabad accuses Kabul of harbouring terrorists who target Pakistan on its soil, a claim the Taliban reject.

Read more on BBC

Ms. Keaton’s Kay, an outsider to the Corleone family, carries the burden of being the films’ sole moral voice, the only one who rejects the Mafia’s twisted and bloody codes.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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