Borrowed from Middle French repulsif, from Medieval Latin repulsivus, from Latin repulsus. By surface analysis, repuls(e) +‎ -ive.

Compare typologically Polish odpychający (< pchnąć), Russian отта́лкивающий (ottálkivajuščij) (< толкну́ть (tolknútʹ)).

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈpʌlsɪv/
• enPR: /rĭ-pŭl'sĭv/, /rē-pŭl'sĭv/

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repulsive (comparative more repulsive, superlative most repulsive)

1. Tending to rouse aversion or to repulse; disgusting.

   a repulsive smell

   • 1975, Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital. 1848-1875, published 1995, page 267:

     The problem is to strike a balance between, on the one hand, the harsh poverty which still dominated the lives of most working folk, the repulsive physical environment and the moral void which surrounded so many of them, and, on the other, the undoubted general improvement of their conditions and prospects since the 1840s.

2. (physics) Having the capacity to repel.
3. Cold; reserved; forbidding.

• repellent
• similar: disgusting, vile, inappropriate

• (tending to rouse aversion): attractive
• (physics, having the capacity to repel): attractive

• prelusive, pulverise

• IPA^(key): /re.pulˈsi.ve/
• Rhymes: -ive
• Hyphenation: re‧pul‧sì‧ve

repulsive

1. feminine plural of repulsivo