Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RE-PEL', v.t. [L. repello; re and pello, to drive.]

1. To drive back; to force to return; to check advance; as, to repel an enemy or an assailant. Hippomedon repell'd the hostile tide. – Pope. And virtue may repel, though not invade. – Dryden.
2. To resist; to oppose; as, to repel an argument.