recuse

Etymology

From Late Middle English recusen, from Old French recuser (modern French récuser (“to challenge; to impugn; (formal) to make an objection; (law) to recuse”), and from its etymon Latin recūsāre, the present active infinitive of recūsō (“to decline, refuse, reject; (law) to object to, protest”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’, denoting opposition or reversal) + causa (“cause, reason; (law) case, claim; etc.”) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). Doublet of rouse and possibly ruse. cognates * Catalan recusar * French récuser * Italian ricusare * Old Occitan recuzar * Portuguese recusar * Spanish recusar

verb

1. (transitive, often reflexive)
   1. To reject or repudiate (an authority, a person, a court judgment, etc.).
      1. (reflexive, law) Of a judge, juror, or prosecutor: to declare (oneself) unable to participate in a court case due to an actual or potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality.
         The judge recused herself from that case, citing a possible conflict of interest as one of the parties was a personal friend.
      2. (chiefly Canada, US, law) To object to (a judge, juror, or prosecutor) participating in a court case due to an actual or potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality.
         The ſaid [Nicholas] Fiott, likevviſe, recuſeth James Pipon, eſq; [as being a judge in the cause] ſeeing, that he knovvs that the ſaid Fiott is the perſon vvho is the cauſe that the ſaid Pipon hath been ſued by rigour of lavv, before the council, in order to oblige him to do juſtice to the poor concerning the hoſpital. 1771, [John Shebbeare], An Authentic Narrative of the Oppressions of the Islanders of Jersey.[…], volume II, London: […] S. Hooper,[…], →OCLC, pages 238–239
   2. (obsolete)
      1. To refuse (to do something).
      2. (rare) To dismiss (an appeal).
2. (intransitive, law) Of a judge, juror, or prosecutor: to declare oneself disqualified from trying a court case due to an actual or potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality.
   The district attorney recused from the case because he used to work for the company which was the defendant.