1. to decline to accept; reject
2.
a. to decline to do, give, or grant
b. to decline: with an
infinitive object: to refuse to go
3.
a. to decline to accept or submit to (a command, etc.); decline to undergo
b. to decline to grant the request of (a person)
4. to
stop short at (a fence, etc.), without jumping it: said of a horse
5. Obsolete to
renounce6. anything thrown away or rejected as worthless or useless; waste; trash; rubbish
I am an
invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fibre and liquids, and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.
-Ellison, Ralph Waldo
Invisible Man,
prologue.
The vital accessories to my work are my reference books, such as the complete Shakespeare and a prayer book, and a large refuse bin.
-Bainbridge, Dame Beryl Margaret
In The Guardian, 8 Aug.
