Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Tending to irritate; repellent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Irritating, repellent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective serving or tending to repel

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French rébarbatif, from Old French, from (se) rebarber, to confront : re-, re- + barbe, beard (from Latin barba; see bhardh-ā- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French rébarbatif, rébarbative ("repellent”, “disagreeable"), from Middle French rebarber ("to oppose”, “to stand up to") (from Old French re- + barbe ("barb”, “beard") (from Latin barba ("beard")) literally, “to stand beard to beard against”) + -atif ("-ative").

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Examples

  • He claims that in his crime fiction he tones down his trademark use of obscure words, but he slips "rebarbative" into the essay.

    Fun with the New York Times Tripp 2007

  • He claims that in his crime fiction he tones down his trademark use of obscure words, but he slips "rebarbative" into the essay.

    Archive 2007-03-01 Tripp 2007

  • It is puzzling and rebarbative, but once you get into its mindset, then it can have a curious grip on the imagination.

    On Herta Müller « Tales from the Reading Room 2010

  • Susan Hertog's "Dangerous Ambition" Ballantine, 493 pages, $30 is about two "New Women" of America and their ever-evolving relationship—one hesitates to say friendship about people so naturally rebarbative—over many decades of the 20th century.

    Gift Guide: History Books Andrew Roberts 2011

  • The late Cyril Cusack, a wonderful actor but a rebarbative spirit, used to recount a meeting with Beckett about a possible production of Waiting for Godot in which Cusack told the author that the play is nothing more than a moan of Protestant angst.

    2009 May 06 | NIGEL BEALE NOTA BENE BOOKS 2009

  • Worse still, the piece required Hahn, the epitome of refinement, to make coarse, rebarbative sounds on her instrument and Lisitsa to bang out "chords" with her flat palm.

    Virtuoso violinist Hilary Hahn holds her audience rapt but adds some irritants 2011

  • Art Resource, NY Sixth-century mosaic of the Nile River with a crocodile, a duck and lotus flowers So why has this remarkable empire for so long been perceived as abhorrent and rebarbative, when not being dismissed?

    The Glories of Byzantium Judith Herrin 2011

  • The late Cyril Cusack, a wonderful actor but a rebarbative spirit, used to recount a meeting with Beckett about a possible production of Waiting for Godot in which Cusack told the author that the play is nothing more than a moan of Protestant angst.

    Banville on Beckett: Non-Words or Word Storms? 2009

  • Her ultimate fate was so tragic that it softens whatever harsh feelings one might have about her earlier, rebarbative views.

    A Writer's Contradictions 2010

  • The festival would scarcely be recognisable without one rebarbative example of the avant garde.

    Caledonia; The Gospel at Colonus; Vieux Carré 2010

Comments

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  • "Still, everyone appeared to be extremely nice, except that that Dr. Greenfield man was a trifle rebarbative. (This was a word which Toby had recently learnt at school and could not now conceive of doing without.)" - Iris Murdoch, The Bell

    June 16, 2008

  • "They took me home that night in Gillian's rebarbatively quotidian motor-car."

    Talking It Over by Julian Barnes, p 48

    March 28, 2018