Link Centre Dictionary

rebarbative

re·bar·ba·tive

UK/ɹɪˈbɑːbətɪv/ US/ɹɪˈbɑɹbətɪv/ uncommon

adjective

1.

serving or tending to repel

  • “he became rebarbative and prickly and spiteful”
  • “I find his obsequiousness repellent”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

From French rébarbatif, rébarbative (“repellent, disagreeable”), from Middle French rebarber (“to oppose”), ultimately from Latin barba (“beard”), literally “to stand beard to beard against”.

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.