Other forms: repulsed, repulsing, repulses
To repulse is to drive an attack back. Repulse the assault, repulsed with heavy losses, repulse the advance.
It is a military word and it means driving back rather than destroying. It also means to reject somebody's advances coldly. Note repulsed, which in modern use usually means disgusted — that sense comes from repulsive and is now much the commoner, which makes the older one easy to misread.
1verbrepulseTo drive an attack back.
“The soldiers repulsed the enemy attack and held the bridge.”
2verbrejectTo reject somebody coldly.
“She coldly repulsed all his attempts to become friends.”
repulse is a driving back.
Latin repulsus is the past participle of repellere, to drive back — re plus pellere, to drive. Repel and propel come from the same driving.
Latin
repulsus
Middle English
repulsen
English, today
repulse
From Middle English repulsen, from Latin repulsus, from repellō. For spelling, as in pulse, the -e (on -lse) is so the end is pronounced, rather than as in pulls, and does not change the vowel (‘u’). Compare else, false, convulse.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA