refusenik
Syllables: re·fuse·nik/ɹɪˈfjuːznɪk/US/ɹəˈfjuznɪk/
refusenik noun: one of the citizens of the former Soviet Union who was refused permission to emigrate (typically but not exclusively a Jewish citizen denied permission to immigrate to Israel).
Noun
refusenik (plural refuseniks or refuseniki)
- One of the citizens of the former Soviet Union who was refused permission to emigrate (typically but not exclusively a Jewish citizen denied permission to immigrate to Israel).
- The refuseniki say they don’t want to change anything in the U.S.S.R., only leave it.1985 June 2, Louis Moore, “‘Refuseniki’ look to the West with hope”, in Houston Chronicle, volume 84, number 232, Houston, Tex.: Houston Chronicle Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, section 1, page 3...
- In 1974, a handful of brave Soviet Jews haunted foreign embassies in Moscow hoping for exit visas. Refuseniks, they were called; the Brezhnev Government wouldn't let them out.1990 December 14, “Remember the Refuseniks?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 May 2015
- Synonyms:
- otkaznik
- A person who refuses to do something, usually as a protest; for example, one who refuses conscription or vaccination.
- Near-synonyms: recusant, decliner, dissenter, objector, protester, defier, maverick, nonconformist, rebel, renegade
- Hope in liberation can imbue the singular transgressive body-performativity as well as the performative uses of fallibilist pragmatic presuppositions of human communication action. This risky hope—it is another name for the coalitions and the communities among refuseniki—appears under the figures...1998, Martin J[oseph] Beck Matuštík, “Hope and Refusal”, in Specters of Liberation: Great Refusals in the New World Order (SUNY Series in Radical Social and Political Theory), Albany, N.Y.: State...
refusenik meaning in Tamil and Arabic
refusenik in Tamil
- மறுதலிப்புப் பேற்றாளி
refusenik in Arabic
- one of the citizens of the former Soviet Union who was refused permission to emigrate
- رَافِض rāfiḍ
Examples of refusenik in a sentence
- This risky hope—it is another name for the coalitions and the communities among refuseniki—appears under the figures of a radically existential and multicultural democracy.1998, Martin J[oseph] Beck Matuštík, “Hope and Refusal”, in Specters of Liberation: Great Refusals in the New World Order (SUNY Series in...
- Richard Ellmann once referred to Samuel Beckett as “Nayman from Noland”—the author as national refusenik.2006, Lawrence Thompson, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, page 678:
- In Tel Aviv, this has meant one bar offering a 'shot for a shot.' In Bnei-Barak, a bowl of stew has been offered to get the Ultra-Orthodox refuseniks over their reservations.2021 February 26, “What life is like in countries where Covid-19 vaccination is increasingly a success”, in CNN:
Synonyms of refusenik
Forms of refusenik
| plural | refuseniks |
|---|---|
| plural | refuseniki |
Origin of refusenik
From refuse + -nik (suffix denoting a nickname for a person who endorses, exemplifies, or is associated with something, often a particular ideology or preference), a calque of Russian отка́зник (otkáznik), from отка́з (otkáz, “denial, refusal, rejection, repudiation”) + -ник (-nik, suffix forming masculine nouns, usually denoting adherents, etc.).
Questions about refusenik
- What does refusenik mean?
- Refusenik means one of the citizens of the former Soviet Union who was refused permission to emigrate (typically but not exclusively a Jewish citizen denied permission to immigrate to Israel).
- What is refusenik in Tamil?
- Refusenik in Tamil is மறுதலிப்புப் பேற்றாளி. See Refusenik meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use refusenik in a sentence?
- This risky hope—it is another name for the coalitions and the communities among refuseniki—appears under the figures of a radically existential and multicultural democracy.
- What part of speech is refusenik?
- Refusenik is a noun.
- How do you pronounce refusenik?
- Refusenik is pronounced /ɹɪˈfjuːznɪk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of refusenik?
- The plural of refusenik is refuseniks.
Words near refusenik in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: refusenik (page history and authors); refusenik (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-refusenik.wav.
Cite this entry: “refusenik.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/refusenik. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.