repellent
/ɹəˈpɛlənt/ adjective, noun
Forms repellents repellant
- adjective Repulsive, inspiring aversion. “The mixture of whey, beetroot juice, and spirulina seems repellent to me.”
- adjective Resistant or impervious to something. “All that fabric's supposed to be dust-repellent.”
- adjective (physics, now rare) Tending or able to repel; driving back. “These particles exercise a-highly repellent force.”
- noun A substance or solution used to repel insects, dangerous animals, or other pests. “None of the mosquito repellents we've tried work.”
- noun A substance or treatment for a fabric etc to make it impervious to something. “They applied dirt repellent to the sports car.”
- noun (obsolete, more generally) Someone or something that repels.
Synonyms
aversive repellant rebarbative disgusting disgustful distasteful foul loathly loathsome repelling revolting skanky wicked yucky resistant
Etymology
From Latin repellēns. Equivalent to repel + -ent.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Driving back; able or tending to repel.
- noun That which repels.
- noun A remedy to repel from a tumefied part the fluids which render it tumid. Dunglison.
Etymology [L. repellens, -entis, p. pr.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “repellent”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details