Refusenik
noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 One of the citizens of the former Soviet Union who was refused permission to emigrate (typically but not exclusively a Jewish citizen denied permission to emigrate to Israel). historical, slang
"The refuseniki say they don’t want to change anything in the U.S.S.R., only leave it."
- 2 A person who refuses to do something, usually as a protest; for example, one who refuses conscription or vaccination. broadly, informal
"Near-synonyms: recusant, decliner, dissenter, objector, protester, defier, maverick, nonconformist, rebel, renegade"
Example
More examples"The refuseniki say they don’t want to change anything in the U.S.S.R., only leave it."
Etymology
From refuse + -nik (suffix denoting a nickname for a person who endorses, exemplifies, or is associated with something, often a particular ideology or preference), a calque of Russian отка́зник (otkáznik), from отка́з (otkáz, “denial, refusal, rejection, repudiation”) + -ник (-nik, suffix forming masculine nouns, usually denoting adherents, etc.).
Related phrases
More for "refusenik"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.