variants
also refusnik
as in refuser
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Recent Examples of refusenik
Instead, Elam became a refusenik, as conscientious objectors are called in Israel, over his disapproval of the Israel-Hamas war.
—
Jade Walker,
CNN,
25 Mar. 2025
After getting a secret greenlight in March 1990, Mr. Reichmann was aboard his private plane to Lithuania to pick up refusenik Raiz and his son.
—
Brian Murphy,
Washington Post,
10 Jan. 2023
Can the host forbid entry or try to make a refusenik toe the line?
—
Matt Zoller Seitz,
Vulture,
1 Dec. 2021
Vaccine mandates by large companies and government agencies, many of them imposed at President Biden’s behest, seem to be working—without vaccine-refusenik workers quitting en masse, as threatened.
—
Susan B. Glasser,
The New Yorker,
1 Oct. 2021
If the refusal to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge was sure to earn the Republican refusenik a potent primary challenge from the right, a denying Trump’s election lies as a gospel truth will likely lead to the same punishment.
—
Alex Shephard,
The New Republic,
7 July 2021
Natan Sharansky has been a computer scientist, a chess player, a refusenik, a dissident, a political prisoner, a party leader, a government minister, a nonprofit executive, and a bestselling author.
—
Matthew Continetti,
National Review,
28 Nov. 2020
Jade Walker,
CNN,
25 Mar. 2025
After getting a secret greenlight in March 1990, Mr. Reichmann was aboard his private plane to Lithuania to pick up refusenik Raiz and his son.
—
Brian Murphy,
Washington Post,
10 Jan. 2023
Can the host forbid entry or try to make a refusenik toe the line?
—
Matt Zoller Seitz,
Vulture,
1 Dec. 2021
Vaccine mandates by large companies and government agencies, many of them imposed at President Biden’s behest, seem to be working—without vaccine-refusenik workers quitting en masse, as threatened.
—
Susan B. Glasser,
The New Yorker,
1 Oct. 2021
If the refusal to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge was sure to earn the Republican refusenik a potent primary challenge from the right, a denying Trump’s election lies as a gospel truth will likely lead to the same punishment.
—
Alex Shephard,
The New Republic,
7 July 2021
Natan Sharansky has been a computer scientist, a chess player, a refusenik, a dissident, a political prisoner, a party leader, a government minister, a nonprofit executive, and a bestselling author.
—
Matthew Continetti,
National Review,
28 Nov. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for refusenik
Noun
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Army of Shadows doesn’t have a TX but the team will be keen to get it out quickly in order to tap into a local and global feeling of political discontent.
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But AfD has long become adept at harnessing discontent with issues well beyond its signature theme of curbing migration, which powered its rise in the mid-2010s.
Noun
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Gillespie also has a reputation for melding music to movies, as seen in Cruella, his 2021 movie that cast Disney villainess Cruella de Vil as a punk rock rebel in London’s fashion scene.
-
The winner is the daughter of the late Alberto Fujimori, the former president whose government in the 1990s defeated the Shining Path extremist rebel group but also took an authoritarian turn.
Cite this Entry
“Refusenik.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/refusenik. Accessed 6 Jul. 2026.
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