Recuse is a verb that means to remove oneself from participation to avoid a conflict of interest.
The Latin word recurare (ray coo SAR ay) means ‘to reject.’ Often used in a legal context, our word of the day has been with us since the early 19th century. Example:
A Juror was asked to recuse himself because it was felt that he couldn’t objectively serve on a jury in which his father was being tried. That kind of conflict of interest can make serving on jury duty awfully difficult.
