List of 426 Sets of Synonyms - How they Differ - Total of 2307 Words - 317

SYNONYMS: refuse, decline, reject, spurn, rebuff.
These verbs all mean to be unwilling to accept, consider, or receive someone or something.

Refuse usually implies determination and often brusqueness: I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.
To decline is to refuse courteously: I declined election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters some years ago.
Reject suggests the discarding of someone or something as unsatisfactory, defective, or useless; it implies categoric refusal: He was rejected for enlistment.
To spurn is to reject scornfully or contemptuously: The more she spurns my love, the more it grows.
Rebuff pertains to blunt, often disdainful rejection: He had gone too far in his advances, and had been rebuffed.