decline

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yes.

But "declined" sounds so much more polite.

Like when the machine "declines" your credit card.

JL


On Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 11:01 AM, David Daniel <david at coarsecourses.com>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Daniel <david at COARSECOURSES.COM>
> Subject:      decline
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From CNN:
> "In the case of this week's United inflight battle, the flight attendant
> reportedly told the man to remove the Knee Defender device, but he
> declined." Shouldn't that be "refused"?
> DAD
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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