What does 퇴짜 literally mean?

 ANSWER: the "reject" character

My Korean-English dictionary defines the word 퇴짜 (退짜) as "to refuse" or "to reject," but I have read that the word literally means "the reject (退 퇴) character (字 자)."

The Chinese character 退 (퇴) means "to withdraw" or "to retreat," but it can also mean "to refuse" or "to reject." And the 字 (자) character means "letter" or "character," as in "Chinese (漢 한) character (字 자)," which is pronounced /한짜/. So, the word 퇴자 (退字) is pronounced /퇴짜/ and literally means "the reject (退) character (字)."

During the Joseon Kingdom, goods that were sent to the Royal Court that were judged to be of too poor quality to give to the king where stamped with the Chinese character 退 (퇴) and rejected. So, the phrase "the 'reject' character" (퇴짜) came to mean "rejected" or "a reject."

From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary