It was a refusal of expediency, he said, and not an absolute refusal.
He studied Joseph's face, and read absolute refusal to speak.
Part of the author's problem was the absolute refusal of his subject to cooperate.
Poets and musicians generally share with clergy an absolute refusal to recognize political boundaries.
Tokubei makes his refusal categorical and absolute this time.
As such, it becomes a victory of imagination over reality, a tale made moving by its principals' absolute refusal to face facts (hence the title).
Your worst problem is your absolute refusal to let anybody else do the giving.
She's spent too much time fighting old battles, and there's been an absolute refusal to acknowledge that her father was anything but a saint.
At length, he shook his head with painstaking slowness, a gesture of absolute refusal.
"And if she receives an absolute refusal, she will have no reason to continue the work?"