refusenik

American  

[ri-fyooz-nik] / rɪˈfyuz nɪk /

Or refusnik

noun

Informal.

1. a Soviet citizen, usually Jewish, who was denied permission to emigrate from the Soviet Union.

---

refusenik British  

/ rɪˈfjuːznɪk /

noun

1. (formerly) a Jew in the Soviet Union who had been refused permission to emigrate

2. a person who refuses to cooperate with a system or comply with a law because of a moral conviction

---

Etymology

Origin of refusenik

1970–75; refuse ¹ + -nik, perhaps translation of Russian otkáznik (unless the Russ word is itself a translation of refusenik )

Example Sentences

The Professor never thought he’d be a refusenik one day too.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 25, 2023

Carter publicly supported dissidents in the Soviet Union such as physicist Andrei Sakharov and refusenik Nathan Sharansky.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 22, 2023

But some of the young men who thrived on the app in 2020 decided to pivot in the opposite direction: refusenik.

From New York Times • Dec. 23, 2021

As it turned out, Mark Hollis wasn’t just a grumpy refusenik who didn’t like miming and name-dropped Miles Davis and Béla Bartók in interviews.

From The Guardian • Feb. 26, 2019

Melsor was a moral hero once — he opposed the Soviet regime and became a refusenik — but America has helped him connect to his inner criminal.

From Washington Post • Feb. 23, 2018