Repellent

//ɹəˈpɛlənt// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A substance or solution used to repel insects, dangerous animals, or other pests.

    "None of the mosquito repellents we've tried work."

  2. 2
    the power to repel wordnet
  3. 3
    A substance or treatment for a fabric etc to make it impervious to something.

    "They applied dirt repellent to the sports car."

  4. 4
    a chemical substance that repels animals wordnet
  5. 5
    Someone or something that repels. broadly, obsolete
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    a compound with which fabrics are treated to repel water wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Repulsive, inspiring aversion.

    "The mixture of whey, beetroot juice, and spirulina seems repellent to me."

  2. 2
    Resistant or impervious to something.

    "All that fabric's supposed to be dust-repellent."

  3. 3
    Tending or able to repel; driving back. archaic

    "These particles exercise a-highly repellent force."

Adjective
  1. 1
    incapable of absorbing or mixing with wordnet
  2. 2
    highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust wordnet
  3. 3
    serving or tending to repel wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
distastefulrebarbativeresistanthideousabhorrentabominable

Antonyms

All antonyms
sexy

Example

More examples

"Don't forget to bring insect repellent."

Etymology

From Latin repellēns. Equivalent to repel + -ent.

Related phrases

insect repellentpussy repellentwater repellent

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.