| word | repel |
|---|---|
| definition | (1) To keep (something) out or away. (2) To drive back. |
| eg_sentence | Her son, knowing how she was repelled by rats and snakes, had started keeping them in his bedroom. |
| explanation | Since re- can mean not just “again” but also “back” (see RE-), repel means “drive back.” Repel has two common adjective forms; thus, a repellent or repulsive odor may drive us into the other room. Its main noun form is repulsion. Magnets exhibit both attraction and repulsion, and the goal of an armed defense is the repulsion of an enemy; but we generally use repulsion to mean “strong dislike.” In recent years, repulse has been increasingly used as a synonym for repel (“That guy repulses me”). |
| IPA | rɪˈpɛl |
Tags: mwvb::unit:9, mwvb::unit:9:word, mwvb::word, mwvb::word-cloze, mwvb::word-reverse, obsidian_to_anki
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