phrasal verb · neutral
turn down
UK/tɜːn daʊn/US/tɜrn daʊn/TURN·down
to refuse or reject an offer, invitation, or request
Examples
“I had to turn down the internship because it clashed with my exams.”
“She turned down his proposal politely.”
“The company turned down my application despite my experience.”
Band 8 sentence
“I ultimately turned down the scholarship because it required relocating overseas, which I couldn't do during uni.”
Collocations
- turn down an offer
- turn down an invitation
- turn down the volume
Word family
Common mistakes
turn down to the offer→turn down the offer
refuse the offer politely -> refuse politely the offer→refuse the offer politely
turn the offer downed→turn the offer down
Say it for a higher band
5say no to→6refuse→7+turn down
Synonyms
refuse
reject
Easily confused
refuse
“She refused the offer politely.”
reject
“The committee rejected his proposal.”
say no to
“I had to say no to the invitation.”
Related words
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In turn …
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