In any case, a refusal will displease (5)
I believe the answer is:
annoy
'displease' is the definition.
(I know that annoy is a more specific form of the action displease)
'in any case a refusal' is the wordplay.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'case a refusal' becomes 'no' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'any' enclosing 'no' is 'ANNOY'.
'will' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for annoy that I've seen before include "Nark - nettle" , "Gall" , "Displease" , "Vex" , "be a nuisance" .)