The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Refusal \Re*fus"al\ (-al), n.
   1. The act of refusing; denial of anything demanded,
      solicited, or offered for acceptance.
      [1913 Webster]

            Do they not seek occasion of new quarrels,
            On my refusal, to distress me more?   --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The right of taking in preference to others; the choice of
      taking or refusing; option; as, to give one the refusal of
      a farm; to have the refusal of an employment.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

refusal
    n 1: the act of refusing
    2: a message refusing to accept something that is offered

The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

REFUSAL, n.  Denial of something desired; as an elderly maiden's hand
in marriage, to a rich and handsome suitor; a valuable franchise to a
rich corporation, by an alderman; absolution to an impenitent king, by
a priest, and so forth.  Refusals are graded in a descending scale of
finality thus:  the refusal absolute, the refusal condition, the
refusal tentative and the refusal feminine.  The last is called by
some casuists the refusal assentive.