REPULSE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does repulse mean? 

• REPULSE (noun)
  The noun REPULSE has 1 sense:

1. an instance of driving away or warding off

  Familiarity information: REPULSE used as a noun is very rare.

• REPULSE (verb)
  The verb REPULSE has 3 senses:

1. force or drive back

2. be repellent to; cause aversion in

3. cause to move back by force or influence

  Familiarity information: REPULSE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REPULSE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An instance of driving away or warding off

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

rebuff; repulse; snub

Hypernyms ("repulse" is a kind of...):

rejection (the speech act of rejecting)

Derivation:

repulse (force or drive back)

repulse (cause to move back by force or influence)

• REPULSE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they repulse    ... he / she / it repulses   
Past simple: repulsed   
Past participle: repulsed   
-ing form: repulsing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Force or drive back

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Synonyms:

drive back; fight off; rebuff; repel; repulse

Context example:

rebuff the attack

Hypernyms (to "repulse" is one way to...):

defend; fight; fight back; fight down; oppose (fight against or resist strongly)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

repulse (an instance of driving away or warding off)

repulsion (the act of repulsing or repelling an attack; a successful defensive stand)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be repellent to; cause aversion in

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

repel; repulse

Hypernyms (to "repulse" is one way to...):

displease (give displeasure to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "repulse"):

churn up; disgust; nauseate; revolt; sicken (cause aversion in; offend the moral sense of)

put off; turn off (cause to feel intense dislike or distaste)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to repulse Sue

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cause to move back by force or influence

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

beat back; drive; force back; push back; repel; repulse

Context example:

beat back the invaders

Hypernyms (to "repulse" is one way to...):

force; push (move with force)

Verb group:

drive (cause to move rapidly by striking or throwing with force)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s something from somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

repulse (an instance of driving away or warding off)

repulsion (the act of repulsing or repelling an attack; a successful defensive stand)

 Context examples 

I blamed none of those who repulsed me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

After each repulse, when the old wolf sheered abruptly away from the sharp-toothed object of his desire, he shouldered against a young three- year-old that ran on his blind right side.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

But this was the only shot fired, for the attack had been on the center of the line, and the Indians there had needed no help of ours in repulsing it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I would have taken him with me to see the patient, only I thought that after his last repulse he might not care to go again.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

In Jane's eyes she had been a rival; and well might any thing she could offer of assistance or regard be repulsed.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Again I advanced, but he repulsed me with a look of furious anger.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The boat we were pursuing had squared away and was running before the wind to escape us, and, in the course of its flight, to take part in repulsing our general boat attack.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I would reconcile him to life, but he repulses the idea.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

She was always labouring, in secret, under this distress; and being delicate and downcast at the time of his last repulse—for it was not the first, by many—pined away and died.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I had quite made up my mind that the mutineers, after their repulse of the morning, had nothing nearer their hearts than to up anchor and away to sea; this, I thought, it would be a fine thing to prevent, and now that I had seen how they left their watchmen unprovided with a boat, I thought it might be done with little risk.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)