repeller

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person, substance, device, or force that repels something or drives it away

   The gardener installed an ultrasonic repeller to keep animals away from the seedlings.

2. 2
   noun

   in speculative technology, a device that produces a repulsive force

   The spacecraft used a repeller to hold the approaching vessel at a distance.

From repel + the agent suffix -er, literally 'something that repels.' Repel comes from Latin repellere ('to drive back'), formed from re- ('back') + pellere ('to drive, strike'). The noun can name either an ordinary deterrent or an imagined force-producing machine.

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