Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1990 (DOST Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Refus(e, -fuis, n.² and adj. Also: ref-, ra- and -fuss, -fues. [ME and e.m.E. refus noun (1364, in Löfvenberg Contributions to ME Lexicography etc.), -fuse, refuce (Prompt. Parv.), -fows (1503–4), reffuse (1547), also reffize (1569), also refuge (sic, 1599), adj. (Chaucer), also refuse (money, c1490; wool, 1476 and 1530; in Hanham Cely Papers and the OED), appar. ‘an irreg. adoption of OF refuse (= mod. F. refusé), p.p. of refuser’ Refus(e v. (OED). Cf. Refus(en.¹]

A. noun. The rejected or waste part of anything; worthless matter of any kind. b. transf. Applied to persons, collectively: ‘Scum’, ‘dregs’, ‘offscourings’, etc. 14.. Acts I 336/2.
Off the tailȝeouris chalance … That thai mak our mekil refus and schredis of mennis claith 1452–3 Ayr B. Ct. 12 March.
And the refus of the gudis sal be boch to the profetis of the fremen 1563 Dumfries B. Ct. fol. 182.
Saiffand … the rafues of thre stane allanerlye 1635 Dickson Wr. 92 (see Jug(gi)s n. pl.). 1675 Forbes Baron Ct. 300.
To keip vp the dust and refuss in the mill floor in tym of the fearm grending 1681 New Mills Manuf. lxxxvi.
The refuse and losse upon … scouring of the Spanish woolltransf. 1548–9 Misc. Maitl. C. IV 112.
The number of them [sc. horsemen] be of the refuse of men ?a1500 Steel Roy Robert 62.
You're the great refuse of all the warld

B. adj. a. Of a person: Refused or rejected. Const. of those rejecting. b. Of a thing: Discarded or thrown aside as worthless.a. c1500-c1512 Dunb. Flyt. 105.
Forworthin fule, of all the warld reffuseb. 1561–2 Ayr B. Acc. 133.
[The profit on] refuis [wine, £16] 1587 Edinb. Test. XVIII 67.
Refuse hydis 1593 Ib. XXV 231b.
Ane dusane refuis cairdis