Verb
The troops repulsed the attack.
I was repulsed by the movie's violence.
The moldy bread repulsed him.
He repulsed all attempts to help him. Noun
the waiter's incredibly rude repulse of our polite request for a better table—one that wasn't right next to the kitchen—prompted us to walk out
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
In April and May, the two countries engaged in their largest military exercises together, simulating an effort to repulse an amphibious landing.—Massimo Calabresi / Washington, TIME, 4 June 2024 But a defender got away with a high kick of the ball near Dahlkemper’s head, repulsing the Wave.—Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 May 2024 But when Churchill took his first look, he was repulsed.—Julia Binswanger, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Apr. 2024 His way out of this etiquette conundrum: exposing his testicles to repulse the club’s irate owner.—Boris Kachka, Washington Post, 22 Mar. 2024 But some physicists pondered whether antimatter might instead be repulsed by gravity.—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 27 Sep. 2023 Sunny Hostin asked, looking visibly repulsed by the idea.—EW.com, 14 Nov. 2023 The eggs don’t look appetizing anymore, in fact, you’re repulsed by them.—Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY, 7 Jan. 2024 Sydney Sweeney was just as repulsed by that Euphoria vomit scene as viewers — including her own family
The season 2 scene featured Sweeney’s character, Cassie, vomiting violently in a hot tub.—Kelly Wynne, Peoplemag, 26 Jan. 2024
Noun
But many foresee a protracted, bitter conflict, particularly in the country’s east as Russian forces retrench after the humiliating repulse of their advance on Kyiv.—Washington Post, 16 Apr. 2022 Stories about chemical and biological weapons are often oversold, for the same reason stories of cannibalistic serial killers are: Peculiar forms of murder repulse and excite us, and old-fashioned forms do not.—Washington Post, 19 Feb. 2021 Yet Mr Trump’s decision to change course represents neither a disastrous retreat nor a major moral repulse.—The Economist, 23 June 2018 After another great inwash of Hispanics, peaking during the late 1990s at around 750,000 arrivals a year, a repulse was inevitable.—The Economist, 18 Jan. 2018 Fog stalled airborne reinforcements to British forces at Arnhem in 1944, contributing to the German repulse of a major Allied initiative.—Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 18 Oct. 2017 Valerian wheezes to a close and then gives us a sloppy, oafish grin, one that, much like an ugly dog, both endears and repulses.—Jillian Selzer, Cosmopolitan, 24 July 2017
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'repulse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Verb
Middle English repulsen "to hold back, drive away," probably in part borrowed from Latin repulsus, past participle of repellere "to push away, drive back, fend off," in part borrowed from Middle French repulser "to drive back, put an end to," borrowed from Latin repulsāre "to drive back, repudiate," frequentative of repellere — more at repel
Noun
borrowed from Middle French & Latin; Middle French, "action of pushing back, rejection," borrowed in part from Latin repulsa "electoral defeat, check, rebuff" (noun derivative from feminine of repulsus, past participle of repellere "to push away, drive back, fend off"), in part from repulsus "action of forcing back," verbal noun from repellere — more at repel
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