repulsive
causing repugnance or aversion: a repulsive mask.
tending to drive away or keep at a distance; cold; forbidding: arrogant, repulsive airs to frighten the timid.
Physics. of the nature of or characterized by physical repulsion.
Origin of repulsive
1Other words for repulsive
Other words from repulsive
- re·pul·sive·ly, adverb
- re·pul·sive·ness, noun
- self-re·pul·sive, adjective
- un·re·pul·sive, adjective
- un·re·pul·sive·ly, adverb
- un·re·pul·sive·ness, noun
Words that may be confused with repulsive
- repellent, repulsive
Words Nearby repulsive
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use repulsive in a sentence
Some repulsive force, nicknamed “dark energy” in the absence of firm knowledge of its true nature, apparently pervades the cosmos.
The Top 10 scientific surprises of Science News’ first 100 years | Tom Siegfried | September 20, 2021 | Science NewsThe nation’s fate was never going to matter more to us than it does them, however repulsive we may find their vision for it.
What’s happening in Afghanistan is horrible. But how else was U.S. involvement going to end? | Eugene Robinson | August 26, 2021 | Washington PostIts final form was not quite as repulsive as initial proposals.
Georgia’s repulsive new election law is Exhibit A in the GOP’s war on voting rights | Ruth Marcus | March 26, 2021 | Washington PostShe said she found the use of the word “recruit” to describe her locating and hiring of masseuses “repulsive,” insisting her work for Epstein was no different than her efforts to secure gardeners, pool attendants and chauffeurs.
Ghislaine Maxwell deposition portrays her as combative, loyal defender of sex offender Epstein | Rosalind Helderman, Shayna Jacobs, Beth Reinhard, Devlin Barrett | October 22, 2020 | Washington PostIn the most highly praised measurement yet, reported in Nature in July, Steinberg’s group in Toronto used what’s called the Larmor clock method to gauge how long rubidium atoms took to tunnel through a repulsive laser field.
Quantum Tunnels Show How Particles Can Break the Speed of Light | Natalie Wolchover | October 20, 2020 | Quanta Magazine
He said he had found it repulsive, because to him it had advocated Islamic militancy.
Religion, Race, and a Broadway Hit: The Making of ‘Disgraced’ | Tim Teeman | November 10, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTOh sure, the Super Bowl and all its macho imitators are commemorations of some repulsive male urge best ignored.
They absolutely must boycott this absurd, insane, sickening, repulsive, shameful, and at the same time shame-less circus.
Thomas refused to answer for a while, but now my curiosity was aroused about the repulsive young man below and I pressed him.
Read ‘The King in Yellow,’ the ‘True Detective’ Reference That’s the Key to the Show | Robert W. Chambers | February 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn the film, a young schoolgirl in uniform calls Divine sick and repulsive.
A Tribute to Divine, Hollywood’s Most Infamous Drag Queen | Jimmy So | October 27, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTA dish of toads of the largest and most repulsive variety used to be offered one by one to the big man's relatives and guests.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3) | Charles James WillsThis lady was forty years of age, insufferably proud of her pedigree, and in her manners stiff and repulsive.
Madame Roland, Makers of History | John S. C. AbbottHe thought it very likely, and he wanted to see them—but movement was repulsive to his bulging body.
Scattergood Baines | Clarence Budington KellandUnwashed, unshorn, in the loss almost of the aspect of humanity, they became repulsive to each other.
Madame Roland, Makers of History | John S. C. AbbottIt is not easy to imagine anything more disgusting and repulsive than these priests.
A Woman's Journey Round the World | Ida Pfeiffer
British Dictionary definitions for repulsive
/ (rɪˈpʌlsɪv) /
causing or occasioning repugnance; loathsome; disgusting or distasteful: a repulsive sight
tending to repel, esp by coldness and discourtesy
physics concerned with, producing, or being a repulsion
Derived forms of repulsive
- repulsively, adverb
- repulsiveness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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