Repugnatorial
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Defensive or repulsive, particularly as applied to glands of certain invertebrates, with which they produce poisonous or repugnant secretions when under threat.
"Certain beetles are endowed with eversible repugnatorial glands. Eleodes gigantea ... of both sexes ... when teased ... stand on their anterior and middle legs, holding the abdomen high up and spurting the contents of the glands right and left ... The liquid stains the human skin, has ... a peculiar, intensely penetrant odor, causing the eye to lachrymate."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Certain beetles are endowed with eversible repugnatorial glands. Eleodes gigantea ... of both sexes ... when teased ... stand on their anterior and middle legs, holding the abdomen high up and spurting the contents of the glands right and left ... The liquid stains the human skin, has ... a peculiar, intensely penetrant odor, causing the eye to lachrymate."
Etymology
From Latin repugnatorius.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.