The word? Nope. Throw it away, then.

Welcome to Random Word Vacation
Day Two

Random Word: Refuse

I love words with two completely different meanings.

First, there is refuse, the verb. It means someone has indicated that they are not willing to do something. Or perhaps, they will not accept something.

Betty Longstatter went to visit her neighbor, Gladys Meyers. Betty didn’t much like Gladys. Not one little bit. But Betty had been to church this past Sunday, where the preacher reminded everyone they should be good neighbors. So now, Betty was trying.

Gladys welcomed her and invited Betty to sit down on the couch. She went into the kitchen, clanging around for a moment, before emerging with a tray topped with two cups of coffee and two slices of cake.

Betty felt the deep pressure of a vast conundrum falling over her. She’d been on Weight Watchers for four weeks now and had lost half a pound. She knew she should refuse the cake to keep her success story rolling. However, by refusing, she may not be acting as a good neighbor. She stared wearily at the tray, trying to decide if she would rather be fat in heaven, or skinny, in hell.

The icing was delicious.

Yes, that’s one kind of refuse.
The other is the noun. It describes matter thrown away or rejected as useless.

If Betty had turned down the cake, Gladys would have had to dump the refuse in the garbage pail.

And that, is what I know, and don’t know, about the word refuse.


 

A note about The Random Word Vacation

Yes, a brief break from the daily grind of this blog.
Possibly for the next few days or more, depending on my mental vacation need.
Instead, I am given a random word at https://randomwordgenerator.com/
And I will write something about it. The rule is, that I have to use the first word I get from the generator. No excuses. No substitutes.

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