n. The expulsion of refugees from a place where they can rightfully claim refugee status to a place where they may face persecution or other threats, such as the country or disaster area from which they originally fled. [French, a forcing back, from refouler, to force back, from Old French refoler : re-, back (from Latin re-; see re- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots) + foler, to full cloth, crush (from Vulgar Latin follāre, from Latin fullō, fuller; see bhel-2 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots).] re·foule v. |
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