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Refuse vs Insist - What's the difference?

refuse | insist |

As verbs the difference between refuse and insist

is that refuse is while insist is to hold up a claim emphatically.

refuse

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Discarded, rejected.

    • Noun

    (-)
  • (UK) Collectively, items or material that have been discarded; rubbish, garbage.
    • Synonyms
    * discards * garbage (US ) * rubbish (UK ) * trash (US ) * See also

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) refuser, from .

    Verb

    (refus)
  • To decline (a request or demand).
    • My request for a pay rise was refused .
    I refuse to listen to this nonsense any more.
  • * Bible, Isa. i. 20
    • If ye refuse ye shall be devoured with the sword.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 27 , author=Alistair Magowan , title=Bayern Munich 2 - 0 Man City , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=City were outclassed thereafter and Roberto Mancini said that substitute Carlos Tevez refused to play.}}
  • To decline a request or demand, forbear; to withhold permission.
    • I asked the star if I could have her autograph, but she refused .
  • (military) To throw back, or cause to keep back (as the centre, a wing, or a flank), out of the regular alignment when troops are about to engage the enemy.
    • to refuse the right wing while the left wing attacks
  • (obsolete) To disown.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Refuse thy name.
    Usage notes
    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See
    Synonyms
    * (decline) decline, reject, nill, say no to, turn down, veto, withsake * (decline a request or demand) say no, forbear

    Noun

  • (obsolete) refusal
    • (Fairfax)
    English heteronyms English reporting verbs ----

    insist

    English

    Alternative forms

    * ensist

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To hold up a claim emphatically.
    • (I am defending her; see a similar example in the context below for comparison.)
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist . Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • To demand continually that something happen or be done.
  • To stand (on); to rest (upon); to lean (upon).
  • * 1709 , Venturus Mandey, Synopsis Mathematica Universalis
    • Angles likewise which insist on the Diameter, are all Right Angles.

    Anagrams

    * English reporting verbs