refusenik
Americannoun
noun
-
(formerly) a Jew in the Soviet Union who had been refused permission to emigrate
-
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Professor never thought he’d be a refusenik one day too.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 25, 2023
It inspired the music site Pitchfork to note the single-minded intensity of this “possible madman and authority-critiquing refusenik that was marginalized in his own time, only to later be viewed as a seer.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 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
When the Soviet Union lifted its ban on the Jewish refusenik emigration in 1971, my family saw their opportunity to start over in America.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 7, 2022
It was not for nothing that he was known as Israel’s relentless refusenik.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 13, 2018
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
