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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
repel
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
attract
▪ She seems most intrigued by the situation, attracted and repelled at the same time.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Guerrilla fighters were soon able to repel the army's attack.
▪ Her heavy make-up and cheap perfume repelled him.
▪ Use cedar or citronella candles to repel biting insects.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ After repelling the wiles of Tufnell, Wright and Jones ensured that three figures were raised by the close.
▪ But this is precisely the kind of war least suited to either deterring or repelling regional aggressions.
▪ Farmers can make good use of some land while other areas nearby are less attractive, or even repel them.
▪ I felt polluted, tainted, defiled, unworthy of anyone except Karen, who repelled me.
▪ Rather than misdirecting attacks, they repel them altogether, as we shall see in the next chapter..
▪ Theirs had been one of those childless, self-absorbing marriages which unconsciously repel attempts at intimacy.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Repel

Repel \Re**pel"\ (r?-p?l"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Repelled (-p?ld"); p. pr. & vb. n. Repelling.] [L. repellere, repulsum; pref. re- re- + pellere to drive. See Pulse a beating, and cf. Repulse, Repeal.]

  1. To drive back; to force to return; to check the advance of; to repulse as, to repel an enemy or an assailant.

    Hippomedon repelled the hostile tide.
    --Pope.

    They repelled each other strongly, and yet attracted each other strongly.
    --Macaulay.

  2. To resist or oppose effectually; as, to repel an assault, an encroachment, or an argument.

    [He] gently repelled their entreaties.
    --Hawthorne.

    Syn: Tu repulse; resist; oppose; reject; refuse.

Repel

Repel \Re*pel"\, v. i. To act with force in opposition to force impressed; to exercise repulsion.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
repel

early 15c., "to drive away, remove," from Old French repeller or directly from Latin repellere "to drive back," from re- "back" (see re-) + pellere "to drive, strike" (see pulse (n.1)). Meaning "to affect (a person) with distaste or aversion" is from 1817. Related: Repelled; repelling.

Wiktionary
repel

vb. 1 (context now rare English) To turn away from a privilege, right, job, etc. (from 15th c.) 2 To reject, put off (a request, demand etc.). (from 15th c.) 3 To ward off (a malignant influence, attack etc.). (from 15th c.) 4 To drive back (an assailant, advancing force etc.). (from 15th c.) 5 (context physics English) To force away by means of a repulsive force. (from 17th c.) 6 To cause repulsion, cause dislike. (from 18th c.) 7 (context transitive sports English) To save (a shot).

WordNet
repel
  1. v. cause to move back by force or influence; "repel the enemy"; "push back the urge to smoke"; "beat back the invaders" [syn: drive, repulse, force back, push back, beat back] [ant: attract]

  2. be repellent to; cause aversion in [syn: repulse] [ant: attract]

  3. force or drive back; "repel the attacker"; "fight off the onslaught"; "rebuff the attack" [syn: repulse, fight off, rebuff, drive back]

  4. reject outright and bluntly; "She snubbed his proposal" [syn: rebuff, snub]

  5. fill with distaste; "This spoilt food disgusts me" [syn: disgust, gross out, revolt]

  6. [also: repelling, repelled]

Wikipedia
Repel

Repel is a commune in the Vosges department in Lorraine in northeastern France.

Usage examples of "repel".

I found her alone, and began with an ardent caress which she gently repelled, but her face froze my passion in its course.

When Belding returned, and, instead of being accompanied by Wallace, merely brought a letter from him, the unhappy Susan would sink into fits of lamentation and weeping, and repel every effort to console her with an obstinacy that partook of madness.

To the left, in the humblest position of all, rode Bufe Coker, so stiff he could hardly stay in his saddle, his bandanna pulled over his face to repel the incredible dust.

The release from things American and under the jurisdiction of the Council of the Indies did not come to Bucareli for almost two more years, during which time he struggled manfully with the affairs of the Jesuit missions, repelled the Chaco Indians on one side, and on the other implored for troops to defend the island of Chiloe against the heretic English, who at that time appear to have been meditating the advancement of their empire in the extremest south.

General Cuesta was so alarmed at his position that he sent word to Sir Arthur he intended to leave Talavera that evening, and join the British army at Orepesa, in order to assist it in repelling Soult.

Her cold and distant manner repelled me, but I loved her, and I had never seen her so beautiful, a slight fever animating her complexion which was then truly dazzling in its beauty.

Some Jewish veterans who had seen Buchenwald and Auschwitz were repelled by the thought that now their country was depending upon former Nazis for its military might, and occasionally ugly incidents had occurred in El Paso when the Germans went shopping.

And in this way, spite of all remonstrance, was I dragged through the lane and enlisted with the rest of my companions into a corps of university men who were just forming themselves in the High-street to repel the daring attack of the very scum of the city, who had ill-treated and beaten some gownsmen in the neighbourhood of St.

There was a gruffness in the invitation which under ordinary circumstances would have repelled a visitor.

But the herald saw it for what it was, and, as the galley came alongside the galleon, with a brace of brawny Irishmen contriving to keep her there against the tug of the current with boathooks and main strength, the herald shouted up at a swarthy, bearded man who stood by the rail with a glowing length of matchcord in one tar-stained hand and the other grasping the aiming rod of a swivel guna three-inch drake, mounted in the rail specifically to repel boarders.

For the first two or three days I considered all this as mere amusement, but, thinking that I might really want the men to repel force by force, I had some idea of making my army take an oath of allegiance.

My first idea had been a fearful thought, which I hastened to repel, that Madame, having enjoyed me, wished to deny all knowledge of the fact--a device which is in the power of any woman who gives up her person in the dark to adopt, as it is impossible to convict her of lying.

True gentleness, like an impenetrable armour, repels the most pointed shafts of malice: they cannot pierce through this invulnerable shield, but either fall hurtless to the ground, or return to wound the hand that shot them.

Yet from every lineament there came a strange repelling influence, like that from a snake.

Oishi and two of his older lieutenants, Hara Soyemon and Mase Kyudaiyu, stationed themselves outside to repel reinforcements and to stop those inside from escaping.