REPULSION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does repulsion mean? 

• REPULSION (noun)
  The noun REPULSION has 3 senses:

1. the force by which bodies repel one another

2. intense aversion

3. the act of repulsing or repelling an attack; a successful defensive stand

  Familiarity information: REPULSION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REPULSION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The force by which bodies repel one another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

repulsion; repulsive force

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

force ((physics) the influence that produces a change in a physical quantity)

Attribute:

repulsive (possessing the ability to repel)

Antonym:

attraction (the force by which one object attracts another)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Intense aversion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

horror; repugnance; repulsion; revulsion

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

disgust (strong feelings of dislike)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of repulsing or repelling an attack; a successful defensive stand

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

repulsion; standoff

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

stand (a defensive effort)

Derivation:

repulse (force or drive back)

repulse (cause to move back by force or influence)

 Context examples 

“Did I ever tell you that I once saw him, and shared your feeling of repulsion?”

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

That first repulsion had been really a fear of her undiscovered self, and the fear had gone to sleep.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I’ve had to do with fifty murderers in my career, but the worst of them never gave me the repulsion which I have for this fellow.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The present—the passing second of time—was all I had in which to control and restrain him—a movement of repulsion, flight, fear would have sealed my doom,—and his.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But my very feelings changed to repulsion and terror when I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall over that dreadful abyss, face down with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He was so much worse in reality than in my distempered fancy, that afterwards I was attracted to him in very repulsion, and could not help wandering in and out every half-hour or so, and taking another look at him.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Affecting biological factors or systems, a Biophysical Process is a subatomic, atomic, or molecular process that involves passive, physical movement; attraction or repulsion (electrostatic, van der Waals, gradient, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic, hydrophilic, etc.); radiation interaction; or non-enzymatic formation of covalent bonds.

(Biophysical Process, NCI Thesaurus)

The periodically repeated leucine side chains extending from one alpha helix interdigitate with leucine residues of another alpha helix, facilitating coiled-coil dimerization; like charge repulsion in this region perturbs homodimer formation; heterodimers are promoted by opposing charge attractions. c-MYC transcription factor binds to CAC(GA)TG DNA sites.

(MYC Family Gene, NCI Thesaurus)

But she was more shocked by the repulsion itself than by the cause of it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)