Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To ward off or keep away; drive back.
- intransitive verb To offer resistance to; fight against.
- intransitive verb To refuse to accept or submit to; reject.
- intransitive verb To refuse to accept (someone); spurn.
- intransitive verb To cause aversion or distaste in: synonym: disgust.
- intransitive verb To be resistant to; be incapable of absorbing or mixing with.
- intransitive verb Physics To present an opposing force to; push back or away from by a force.
- intransitive verb To offer a resistant force to something.
- intransitive verb To cause aversion or distaste.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To drive back; force to return; check the advance of; repulse: as, to
repel an assailant. - To encounter in any manner with effectual resistance; resist; oppose; reject: as, to
repel an encroachment; to repel an argument. - To drive back or away: the opposite of
attract . Seerepulsion . - Synonyms and Decline, Reject, etc. (see
refuse ), parry, ward off, defeat. - To act with force in opposition to force impressed; antagonize.
- In medicine, to prevent such an afflux of fluids to any particular part as would render it tumid or swollen.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To act with force in opposition to force impressed; to exercise repulsion.
- transitive verb To drive back; to force to return; to check the advance of; to repulse as, to
repel an enemy or an assailant. - transitive verb To resist or oppose effectually.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive, sports To
save (a shot)
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb fill with distaste
- verb reject outright and bluntly
- verb be repellent to; cause aversion in
- verb force or drive back
- verb cause to move back by force or influence
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Poles of the same name repel each other; poles of unlike name attract each other.
General Science Bertha M. Clark
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Magnetic power generators make electricity in the following way: If you want to generate cheap electricity, you have to understand that opposites attract and likes repel, which is the essence of magnetic power.
EzineArticles 2010
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So while 'repel' may not be the right word, these chinos are water resistant, a brisk shake and all the water fell to the ground.
BSNYC Product Review: Outlier Winterweight OG Pant BikeSnobNYC 2010
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With a similar obnoxious edge to Beyonce's infamous 'if you like it than you should have put a ring on it' lyric, it will either hit a big red 'repel' button or go straight in as your song of the year.
Irish Blogs 2010
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With a similar obnoxious edge to Beyonce's infamous 'if you like it than you should have put a ring on it' lyric, it will either hit a big red 'repel' button or go straight in as your song of the year.
Irish Blogs State Magazine 2010
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I even had bites all over my bum following an emergency toilet situation which caught me off guard as I had not had the foresight to "repel" this area of my body!
TravelPod.com TravelStream™ — Recent Entries at TravelPod.com 2009
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National Enquirer, she's taking time out to focus on "inner growth" and figure out why she seems to constantly "repel" men.
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One corpsman remarked in a letter home, “The engineers and technicians teach us to be soil soldiers, a name they call us here, because we are the army who are training to repel the enemies of the land.”
A Renegade History of the United States Thaddeus Russell 2010
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Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers.
The Conservative Assault on the Constitution Erwin Chemerinsky 2010
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Another friend of mine swears by rubbing dryer sheets on his exposed skin to repel mosquito's.
oroboros commented on the word repel
leper in reverse
December 27, 2006