repulsive
adj/ɹɪˈpʌlsɪv/
Etymology Borrowed from Middle French repulsif, from Medieval Latin repulsivus, from Latin repulsus. By surface analysis, repuls(e) + -ive. Compare typologically Polish odpychający (< pchnąć), Russian отта́лкивающий (ottálkivajuščij) (< толкну́ть (tolknútʹ)).
1
Tending to rouse aversion or to repulse; disgusting.
- a repulsive smell
- The problem is to strike a balance between, on the one hand, the harsh poverty which still dominated the lives of most working folk, the repulsive physical environment and the moral void which surrounded so many of them, and, on the other, the undoubted general improvement of their conditions and prospects since the 1840s.1975, Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital. 1848-1875, published 1995, page 267:
2
Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics Having the capacity to repel.
3
Cold; reserved; forbidding.
- Synonyms
- repellent, disgusting, vile, inappropriate
- Antonyms
- attractive
- Derived terms
- chemorepulsive, electrorepulsive, neurorepulsive, nonrepulsive, repulsively, repulsiveness, unrepulsive