REPULSIVE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does repulsive mean? 

• REPULSIVE (adjective)
  The adjective REPULSIVE has 3 senses:

1. offensive to the mind

2. possessing the ability to repel

3. so extremely ugly as to be terrifying

  Familiarity information: REPULSIVE used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REPULSIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Offensive to the mind

Synonyms:

abhorrent; detestable; obscene; repugnant; repulsive

Context example:

the most repulsive character in recent novels

Similar:

offensive (unpleasant or disgusting especially to the senses)

Derivation:

repel (be repellent to; cause aversion in)

repel (fill with distaste)

repulsiveness (the quality of being disgusting to the senses or emotions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Possessing the ability to repel

Context example:

a repulsive force

Attribute:

repulsion; repulsive force (the force by which bodies repel one another)

Domain category:

natural philosophy; physics (the science of matter and energy and their interactions)

Antonym:

attractive (having the properties of a magnet; the ability to draw or pull)

Derivation:

repel (force or drive back)

repel (cause to move back by force or influence)

repulsiveness (the quality of being disgusting to the senses or emotions)

Sense 3

Meaning:

So extremely ugly as to be terrifying

Synonyms:

hideous; repulsive

Context example:

a repulsive mask

Similar:

ugly (displeasing to the senses)

Derivation:

repel (be repellent to; cause aversion in)

repel (fill with distaste)

repulsiveness (the quality of being disgusting to the senses or emotions)

 Context examples 

Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the repulsive sneer to the face!

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

There was something repulsive about his touch.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He was aware that the whole thing, the very air he breathed, was repulsive and mean.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I shall be killed if—"Silence! This violence is all most repulsive:" and so, no doubt, she felt it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But I could not eat; to even try to do so was repulsive to me, and, much as I would have liked to please him, I could not bring myself to the attempt.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“It is a most repulsive quality, indeed,” said he.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

She had not spirits to notice her in more than a few repulsive looks, but she felt her as a spy, and an intruder, and an indigent niece, and everything most odious.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

They were my brethren, my fellow beings, and I felt attracted even to the most repulsive among them, as to creatures of an angelic nature and celestial mechanism.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Mary was not so repulsive and unsisterly as Elizabeth, nor so inaccessible to all influence of hers; neither was there anything among the other component parts of the cottage inimical to comfort.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

This repulsive pillow was her especial property, being used as a weapon of defense, a barricade, or a stern preventive of too much slumber.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)