turns down

verb

present tense third-person singular of turn down
as in refuses
to show unwillingness to accept, do, engage in, or agree to I'm afraid that I will have to turn down your invitation

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of turns down The candidate who turns down your offer doesn’t necessarily go on to repeat what was heard. — Jon Michail, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026 Pairing a floral sundress with a pair of white sneakers turns down the volume on the feminine formality, making the classic piece a bit less fussy. — Amber Rambharose, InStyle, 18 June 2026 If a local school board turns down a charter, the organizers can appeal to the OC Board, which covers the whole county. — John Seiler, Oc Register, 13 May 2026 May 14, 2014 Steve Kerr is hired Kerr turns down an offer from the New York Knicks to work with Phil Jackson, his former coach with the Chicago Bulls, to sign a five-year, $25 million contract to coach the Warriors. — Jerry McDonald, Mercury News, 10 May 2026 When Towns turns down 3-point shots, the Hawks win. — James L. Edwards Iii, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2026 And there’s another anatomical quirk in our eyeballs that turns down our perception of blue specifically in the center of our vision. — Nora Bradford, Scientific American, 23 Mar. 2026 But everyone seemed to agree that this year’s event was about more than just linking turns down the snowy slopes. — James Edward Mills, Outside, 15 Mar. 2026 Stung by his firing from The Lovely Bones, Wahlberg turns down The Fighter, thinking the film won’t be a big enough splash to turn his career around. — Joe Reid, Vulture, 13 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for turns down
  1. refuses
  2. rejects
  3. declines
Verb
  • But Buddy, the feature debut of Casper Kelly, lets the genre’s relentlessly upbeat tone slowly curdle in the opening sequence, in which one of the kids refuses to play along with day’s lesson about being brave and trying new things.
    — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2026
  • With his final book, however, Morris refuses to draw conclusions, letting the ambiguity of Surrealists’ meanings stand.
    — Kelly Presutti, ARTnews.com, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of refuses
Verb
  • When a human accepts, rejects or overrides the agent, the organization can reconstruct why—not from a comment field that made sense to the person who wrote it, but from a structured record that holds its meaning after they're gone.
    — Krupesh Bhat, Forbes.com, 1 Sep. 2026
  • Israel rejects this, viewing the area as disputed rather than occupied.
    — Pesha Magid Reuters, Arkansas Online, 30 Aug. 2026
Definition of rejects
Verb
  • The fee applies during the first 13 years of the agreement and gradually declines over the remaining initial term.
    — Sydney Sasser, Arkansas Online, 1 Sep. 2026
  • Recent findings show that early-career workers – ages 22 to 25 – in occupations most vulnerable to AI automation, such as software development and customer service, have experienced employment declines.
    — Maria Black, Fortune, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of declines

Browse Nearby Words

turns color
turns down
turns in
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Cite this Entry

“Turns down.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/turns%20down. Accessed 3 Sep. 2026.

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