English

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Etymology

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From Middle English resisten, from Middle French resister and Old French resistre, and their source, Latin resistere, from re- + sistere (cause to stand).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ɹɪˈzɪst/, /ɹəˈzɪst/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: re‧sist
  • Rhymes: -ɪst

Verb

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resist (third-person singular simple present resists, present participle resisting, simple past and past participle resisted)

  1. (transitive) To attempt to counter the actions or effects of.
  2. (transitive) To withstand the actions of.
    • 1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools[1], volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, →OCLC, page 202:
      At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them []
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      The preposterous altruism too! [] Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.
  3. (intransitive) To oppose; to refuse to accept.
  4. (transitive, obsolete) To be distasteful to.

Usage notes

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Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Noun

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resist (countable and uncountable, plural resists)

  1. A protective coating or covering. [1]

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.

Anagrams

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