Other forms: repellents
A repellent is a liquid put on skin to keep biting insects away. Insect repellent, apply repellent, a good repellent.
It works by masking the smells that attract insects rather than by poisoning them, and DEET remains the most effective widely available one. As an adjective, repellent means driving something away — water-repellent fabric — and also disgusting: a repellent idea, which is much the stronger use. Note repel; and the American spelling repellant, which is a variant.
1nounrepellentA liquid put on skin to keep insects away.
“Spray on some mosquito repellent, or you'll be bitten all night.”
2adjectivedrivingDriving something away, or disgusting.
“The jacket is made of a water-repellent fabric that keeps you dry.”
repellent is a substance that drives away.
Latin repellens comes from repellere, to drive back — re plus pellere, to drive. Expel, compel and pulse come from the same driving.
Latin
repellēns
English, today
repellent
From Latin repellēns. Equivalent to repel + ent.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA