oppugnance

Alternative forms

• oppugnancy, oppugnation

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɘˈpʌɡnəns/

Noun

oppugnance (plural oppugnances)

1. (obsolete) Dislike, aversion, animus; opposition: the fact, condition, or instance of being at variance, opposed, hostile, or adverse.
   • 1775, Layman, Strictures, Miscellaneous and Comparative, on the Churches of Rome, England and Scotland, Dublin: A. Kilburn, pages 334–335:

     Power lodged absolutely by God […] in the hands of Mortality, would really be an absurdity of the first magnitude; insomuch as, by constantly and unavoidably turning out despotic and tyrannical, it would daily and hourly rise up in oppugnance to Himself, his sovereign dominion and supreme administration; [...]

   • 1850 April 6, “News of the Week”, in The Spectator, volume 23, page 313:

     the author has said as much that is pleasant as possible, and as little that is disagreeable,—displaying Lord John's reforming services, making no mention of his shortcomings, backslidings, or oppugnances to popular advancement; […]

   • 1859, Theodore Clapp, Theological Views, Boston: Abel Tompkins, page 347:

     More, they [sc. angels] look upon these dark doings [i.e. dishonesty, evasion and circumventing, and reckless indulgence; hate, envy, pride, malice, and ambition] with infinite oppugnance—an oppugnance as much greater than we can feel as heaven is higher than earth.

   • 1872, Henry Norman Hudson, Shakespeare: His Life, Art, and Characters, vol. II., page 115:

     [the] minds [of the young people] being kept pure, and even furthered in the course of manhood, by an instinctive oppugnance to the shams and meannesses which beset their path.

   • 1903, Ernest Crosby, “The Living Universe”, in Broad-cast, New York: Funk and Wagnalls, published 1905, pages 102–103:

     I know the secret of the universe. […] The universe is in love. […] It loves the lively birds and beasts and the strenuous men who feed on them and the beautiful microbes and tumors that feed on the men and most of all it loves the tremor and friction and oppugnance between its loves, and sets its teeth to the shock and thrill of them.

   • 1977, S. M. L. Prachand, The Popular Upsurge and Fall of Congress, page 45:

     Their behaviour attracted a harsh oppugnance of public which was suppressed by use of police force.