🇪🇸Spanish Source WordCode: ES

devolución

Pronunciation / Transliteration: /de.βo.luˈsjon/

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Refoulement/rɪˈfuːlmɒ̃/
nounCEFR C2 (Proficient)Top #45000 frequency
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🇪🇸 Example Sentence in Spanish:

"La prohibición de la devolución es un pilar del derecho de asilo."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    The forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they are liable to face persecution, torture, or human rights abuses.

    "The international community strongly condemned the government's policy of mass refoulement at the border."
  2. 2

    In psychoanalysis, the act of repressing or driving desires, memories, or impulses back into the unconscious mind.

    "Early psychological literature often used refoulement to describe the defensive mechanism of severe emotional repression."

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Borrowed into English in the mid-20th century from French refoulement, derived from the verb refouler meaning 'to drive back' or 'to repulse' (from re- 'back' + fouler 'to trample, press'). In international law, the term acquired a specialized technical meaning referring specifically to the forcible expulsion or return of refugees to countries where they face persecution.

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