α. 1600s– refugee, 1800s reffugee; U.S. regional 1800s reffygee, 1900s– refegee.
β. 1600s– refugie.
γ. 1600s refugieè, 1800s refugié, 1900s– réfugié Brit. 
/ˌreɪfuːʒɪˈeɪ/, U.S. /ˌreɪfuʒiˈeɪ/, 2000s– réfugiée.
refugeen.
/ˌrɛfjᵿˈdʒiː/, /ˌrɛfjuːˈdʒiː/, U.S. /ˈˌrɛfjəˈˌdʒi/ 1. † d. A migratory bird. Obsolete. rare.
a. A Protestant who fled France to seek refuge elsewhere from religious persecution in the 17th and 18th centuries, esp. following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Now rare (historical in later use).
ΚΠ
α.
β. 1671 C. Wase tr. B. Priolo Hist. France vi. 260 Equal to that of the Refugies, was the joy of their Receivers at the coming of such Persons.1685 Burnet Tracts (1689) I. 27 Zurich demanded the Estates of the refugies.1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 13. ⁋2 That all the French Refugies in those Dominions are to be naturalized.1902 C. J. Fox Napoleon Bonaparte & Siege Toulon 56 A pamphlet..which was nothing more than a praise of himself [sc. the Baron d'Imbert] and other refugies.γ. 1687 J. Evelyn Diary (1955) IV. 552 The poore & religious Refugieès who escaped out of France in the cruel persecution.1999 J. G. A. Pocock Barbarism & Relig. I. ii. 64 The Netherlands-centred print culture being built by the Remonstrants and the réfugiés.a1628 F. Greville Life of Sidney (1651) xv. 191 Settled these poore Refugees in Norwich, Colchester, Sandwich, Maidstone, and South-Hampton.
1695 R. Ferguson Brief Acct. Incroachm. & Depredations of Dutch upon Eng. 30 The Condition of the French Refugees, is not only infinitely better here, than ever it was in their own Country, but exceedeth as well as equalleth the State of our own People of Rank and Quality with them.
1696 M. Prior Secretary 8 The long-winded cant of a dull refugee.
1707 London Gaz. No. 4334/4 There was also an humble Address from the French Refugees in the Kingdom of Ireland.
1724 D. Defoe Fortunate Mistress 2 I retain'd nothing of France, but the Language: My Father and Mother being People of better Fashion, than ordinarily the People call'd Refugees at that Time were.
b. gen. A person who has been forced to leave his or her home and seek refuge elsewhere, esp. in a foreign country, from war, religious persecution, political troubles, the effects of a natural disaster, etc.; a displaced person. Also figurative and in extended use.economic refugee, political refugee, etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > exile > [noun] > refugee or stateless person
refugee1692
basti1906
non-domicile1938
displaced person1944
D.P.1945
asylee1950
1692 W. Sherlock Let. to Friend conc. French Invasion 17 He [sc. James II] wanted nothing but Power to make himself Absolute, and to make us all Papists, or Martyrs, or Refugees.
1702 True Acct. Eng. Flying Squadron 21 Those..Deserters..were not forc'd to fly their Native Country, and become Refugees in Foreign parts, for the Security of their Lives.
1725 T. Lewis Origines Hebrææ III. vi. vi. 156 Whilst the Temple of Jerusalem stood, the Eastern Refugees sent their Presents to Jerusalem, and came thither from Time to Time, to pay their Devotions.
1771 H. Husbands Fan for Fanning Introd. p. vi Hence it was, that refugees from the western Governments, and from Connecticut, found a safe retreat in North-Carolina.
a1842 T. Arnold Hist. Later Rom. Commonw. (1846) I. v. 203 Attending the lectures of Philo, then a refugee from Athens.
1860 W. H. Russell My Diary in India 1858–9 II. ii. 31 This gentleman was one of the unhappy refugees who was sheltered in the terai.
1879 J. C. Fife-Cookson Armies of Balkans i. 5 A large number of refugees from the Tunja Valley had already arrived.
1900 Amer. Law Reg. 39 77 Martin Kozta, a Hungarian refugee, after having in America declared his intention of becoming naturalized, went to Smyrna.
1914 E. A. Powell Fighting in Flanders vii. 190 The road from Antwerp to Ghent..was a solid mass of refugees.
1957 L. Durrell Justine i. 39 You are a mental refugee of course, being Irish.
1976 National Observer (U.S.) 6 Mar. 18/4 Robert MacNeil, a 44-year-old refugee from NBC and the British Broadcasting Corp., opens with a succinct summary of the program's topic.
1991 Economist 29 June 50/3 The Socialist government chose the day after Mr Chirac's first outburst to expel a Moroccan political refugee.
2008 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 4 May (Week in Review section) 14/5 We must plan to create safe corridors for the refugees fleeing Baghdad and other areas.
c. In negative sense: a person who is fleeing from justice, deserved punishment, etc.; a runaway, a fugitive. In later use only with from, esp. in refugee from justice.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > going away > [noun] > flight or running away > one who runs away
fugitive1382
runner1440
fleer1488
flyera1500
fugitour1533
runaway1534
runagate1539
fleeter1581
sure flight1599
runagadea1604
deserter?a1645
refugee1754
fly-away1838
skedaddler1864
lamster1904
the world > action or operation > safety > escape > [noun] > one who escapes > from confinement or the law
fugitive1382
prison breaker1704
evader1754
refugee1754
absentee1803
escapee1875
escapado1881
escapist1934
jackrabbit1980
1754 J. Hawkesworth in J. Swift Wks. IV. 11 The inhabitants [of White Friars] claimed afterwards a power and right to protect the persons of debtors, whereby the place became filled with lawless refugees of all sorts.
1768 H. Brooke Fool of Quality III. xvi. 216 I held myself as the refugee Jonas, whose crimes brought perdition on all in the vessel.
1777 Lady A. Miller Lett. from Italy (ed. 2) I. xi. 137 It is not true, that the churches are sanctuaries for robbers and murderers..The soldiers seize the refugees and bring them to justice.
1816 W. Scott Old Mortality vi, in Tales of my Landlord 1st Ser. II. 121 With a promise on Morton's part that he would call the refugee when it was time for him to pursue his journey.
1819 E. Sanford Brit. Poets III. 24 A refugee from justice..is not apt to think himself entitled to be very fastidious in the choice of occupation.
1860 N.-Y. Times 14 Apr. 2/4 John Forsyth and his operations in silver bars and refugees from the law.
1933 Amer. Jrnl. Internat. Law 27 130 No refugee from justice has a right to be immune from extradition.
2007 Irish Independent (Nexis) 7 Oct. Their anger is compounded when they see others who have been accused of abuse..living as refugees from justice within the walls of the Vatican.
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the world > animals > birds > actions or bird defined by > [noun] > migration > migratory bird
summer bird1575
passenger1579
bird of passage1717
refugee1764
migrant1768
migrater1770
migrator1836
wanderer1837
traveller1874
passage bird1878
passage migrant1932
1764 T. Harmer Observ. Passages Script. x. xiv. 413 Among other refugees of that time Maillet elsewhere expressly mentions quails.
2. U.S. During the American Revolutionary War: a member of a group of guerrilla fighters active in support of the British cause, esp. in New York, and nominally affiliated with the Tories. Cf. cowboy n. 3. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > politics > American politics > [noun] > support of British side in War of Independence > supporter
Tory1769
royalist1777
refugee1780
king's man1787
1780 J. André (title) Cow-Chace, in Three Cantos published on Occasion of the Rebel General Wayne's attack of the Refugees Block-House on Hudson's River.
1781 J. Adams in J. Adams & A. Adams Familiar Lett. (1876) 403 I expect all the rancor of the refugees will be poured out upon Cornwallis for it.
1821 J. F. Cooper Spy I. vi. 97 The more cunning refugees dispersed in small bands;..the dispersion of a troop of Cow-boys was only the extension of an evil.
1968 J. McPhee Pine Barrens ii. 36 The Refugees, who travelled—frequently masked—in packs on the sand roads, actually killed and robbed as many Tories as Whigs.
2001 J. P. King Highlands: N.J. iii. 32 The peninsula..was quite heavily fortified by regular British troops, and a large band of rugged ‘Refugees’ maintained a Sandy Hook stronghold.
Compounds
C1.
a. Appositive, as refugee family, refugee scholar, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > exile > [adjective] > refugee or stateless
refugee1695
countryless1805
nationless1820
worldless1826
stateless1890
1695 R. Ferguson Brief Acct. Incroachm. & Depredations of Dutch upon Eng. 32 To Instigate and to make use of his Refugee Country-men, to Concur and Assist in Inslaving Us.
1721 R. Newton Univ. Educ. 181 Grooms, and footmen, and nurses, and refugee tutors.
1787 Daily Universal Reg. 30 Jan. 3/3 Mr. de Fleury, and his daughter Miss de Fleury, a French refugee family.
1791 G. Morris in J. Sparks Life G. Morris (1832) II. 143 The aristocrats are gone and going in great numbers to join the refugee princes.
1833 H. Martineau Messrs. Vanderput & Snoek iv. 63 Our refugee divines preach to more purpose.
1858 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia II. ix. xi. 546 Stanislaus has abundance of useless refugee Polish Magnates about him.
1936 Discovery Apr. 98/1 The most distinguished of the refugee scholars.
1940 Manch. Guardian Weekly 23 Feb. 147 Contracts have just been signed admitting 500 refugee families from Germany and Poland to San Domingo.
1978 P. Sutcliffe Oxf. Univ. Press vii. iv. 260 Some of the refugee scholars eventually made their way to America.
2004 Jewish Chron. 26 Mar. 10/2 My parents brought up 14 refugee children from the Kindertransport.
b. attributive. Of, relating to, characteristic of, or for the use of a refugee or refugees. as refugee boat, refugee centre, refugee colony, refugee style, etc.
ΚΠ
1781 Jrnls. Continental Congr. 1774–89 (Libr. of Congr.) (1912) XIX. 20 To exchange, as heretofore, any exchangeable prisoners of the enemy, taken in refugee boats, for our people prisoners with the enemy.
1837 Knickerbocker 4 1837 Anomalies of expression, which have been stigmatized as the ‘stile réfugée’—the refugee style—a departure from purity, which was the result of their intercourse with strangers in foreign lands.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. xx. 407 Animated by the true refugee hatred of the country which had cast him out.
1888 M. Grigsby Smoked Yank xxvi. 224 General Hazen asked me to take charge of the refugee train that was assigned to his division.
1903 Times 27 Oct. 4/1 The two chief refugee centres in this country are the town of Burgas..and the Rilo mountains.
1940 Manch. Guardian Weekly 23 Feb. 147 This is the first step in an ambitious plan for a large refugee colony..that will be one of the most important refugee projects in the New World.
1979 Economist 26 May 77/2 Today's refugee problem may look like a minor inconvenience compared with the exodus that may come when the food crisis begins to bite.
2008 New Scientist 26 Jan. 7/4 The lack of meat in refugee rations in east Africa has prompted a flourishing illegal trade in wild meat.
C2.
refugee bean n. chiefly North American (now rare) a cultivated variety of snap or string bean; cf. snap n. 18.
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1839 Farmers' Reg. 30 Nov. 644/1 The experiment on which the experiment was tried, was the species of bean called..‘refugee or thousand-to-one bean,’ an excellent species of snap.
1859 Trans. Illinois State Agric. Soc. 1857–8 3 503 The refugee bean (long, dark clouded), has the same characteristics.
1925 D. Monroe & L. M. Stratton Food Buying & our Markets xxi. 199 Refugee beans are specially developed for pods, rather than seeds, and are practically stringless.
1962 Bridgeport (Connecticut) Telegram 6 Dec. 30/2 We live like animals most of the time, eating canned refugee beans when we can get them.
refugee camp n. a camp for the accommodation of refugees.In South African usage formerly sometimes used of camps for the accommodation of Boer non-combatants (cf. concentration camp n.).
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > camp or encampment > [noun] > type of
ordu1673
chantier1823
douar1829
outcamp1844
log-camp1858
lumbering-camp1858
yayla1864
refugee camp1865
cow-camp1873
gypsyry1873
work camp1877
tent town1878
logging-camp1880
lumber-camp1882
town camp1885
base camp1887
line-camp1888
wanigan1890
isolation camp1891
tent village1899
sheep-camp1911
safari camp1912
jungle1914
transit camp1919
Siwash camp1922
health camp1925
tent city1934
fly camp1939
bivvy1961
1865 Leeds Mercury 24 June 9/1 I have..a letter from one who has been for many months in immediate contact with the refugee camps in the South.
1900 Bloemfontein Post in W. S. Sutherland S. Afr. Sketches (1901) 84 There is certainly nothing unpleasant about the name of a ‘camp’... It is only when you attach the name ‘refugee’ to it that it sounds unpleasant... No, a Refugee Camp is no joke, at least to the elders of the Orange River Colony band.
1953 News Chron. 2 June 1/4 The Mall looked like a gigantic refugee camp. Over 30,000 people were bedding down along the pavements.
2005 R. Nidel World Music: Basics i. 20 The former Spanish colony has endured more than 20 years of war with Morocco, with many of its people..living in refugee camps in Algeria.
refugee capital n. Finance capital which is transferred from one country to another in order to exploit differences in currency values or interest rates.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > types of money-dealing > [noun] > provision of capital > capital or principal > types of
stock1598
artificial capital1772
circulating capital1776
natural capital1785
money capital1791
working capital1798
reserve1819
authorized capital1825
current asset1826
loan capital1848
capital asset1851
water1867
capital equipment1893
refugee capital1926
risk capital1927
hot money1936
venture capital1943
risk money1944
exposure1975
1926 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 2 Dec. 36/1 This was a striking measure of deflation of the sort that has been going on since refugee capital began to pour back to France in the early autumn.
1950 N.Y. Times 12 Sept. 11/2 Since the Korean invasion began, as much as $300,000,000 to $400,000,000 in ‘refugee capital’ has flowed here from Europe.
1971 Times 20 Sept. (Hongkong Suppl.) 1/7 It [sc. Hong Kong] is a haven for refugee capital coming in from Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam where the overseas Chinese have found the going rough.
2006 N.Y. Sun (Nexis) 18 Dec. 8 London..has a rapidly growing financial sector in part because of refugee capital fleeing America.
Derivatives
ˌrefuˈgeeism n. the fact or condition of being a refugee.
ΚΠ
1848 T. Hall Rowland Bradshaw xliii. 276 Mr. Gibbon, I think that this only son of his would rather be here, in a sort of secrecy and puny refugeeism, than otherwise.
1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda II. iii. xxii. 72 A Pole, or a Czech, or something of that fermenting sort, in a state of political refugeeism.
1963 Jrnl. Near Eastern Stud. 22 71/2 The decimated and disillusioned Nestorians faced a choice of mass emigration and refugeeism or a simple minority status in their homelands.
2000 Southland (N.Z.) Times (Nexis) 11 Oct. 6 A man who returned to Europe a tide of miserable refugeeism, who brought a Nato bombing campaign raining down on the heads of his own people.
ˌrefuˈgeeship n. (a) the state or fact of being a refugee; †(b) in your refugeeship, as a title of mock respect given to a refugee (obsolete).Sense (b) apparently represents an isolated use.
ΚΠ
1782 Jrnl. Georgia House of Assembly 12 Jan. in A. D. Candler Revolutionary Rec. Georgia (1908) III. 73 [They] shall Produce certificates from the commanding Officer of the regiment, he, or they, served during their Refugeeship from this Country.
1784 in R. Southey Life Andrew Bell (1844) I. 293 All will go on admirably with your refugeeship.
1889 H. Lewis Anc. Laws Wales ii. i. 205 It was the form which refugeeship (or Alltudism) took when the manor began to assume the place of the hundred.
1990 Sun Herald (Sydney) (Nexis) 10 June 31 We live in a world where the economic refugee is a burgeoning fact of life, even if the nature of their refugeeship is often skilfully concealed.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
refugeev.
/ˌrɛfjᵿˈdʒiː/, /ˌrɛfjuːˈdʒiː/, U.S. /ˈˌrɛfjəˈˌdʒi/ 1. transitive. To give refuge to, shelter; to send to a place of refuge. Also reflexive: to take refuge.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabiting temporarily > exile or state of > exile [verb (transitive)] > cause to become refugee
refugee1722
1722 [implied in: J. Ozell tr. F. de S. de La Mothe-Fénelon Fables & Dialogues of Dead viii. 141 I have form'd an invincible Nation out of a Company of refugeed Criminals [Fr. de criminels réfugiés]. (at refugeed adj.)].
1745 tr. A. R. Le Sage Adventures Robert Chevalier II. 44 Their Parents having been forced to seek a distant Retreat, had refugeed themselves there with great Riches.
1750 T. Carte Gen. Hist. Eng. II. 373 Whether the report was raised by the English rebels refugee'd at Paris [etc.].
1866 W. Reid After War 250 Many of his pupils were..negroes that had been ‘refugeed’ from the Red River country.
1874 L. Collins & R. H. Collins Historical Sketches Kentucky (rev. ed.) I. 162/1 [There have been] about 1,200 deaths..among the negroes refugeed at Camp Nelson.
1965 ‘Han Suyin’ Crippled Tree xxix. 412 The house in which Aunt Number One refugeed herself when her husband, Uncle Liu, wanted to give her baby number twelve.
2003 I. Berlin Generations of Captivity iii. 125 When they could, they refugeed their slaves to some safe haven in the Floridas, Louisiana, and the West Indies.
2. transitive. To cause (a person) to become a refugee. rare.
ΚΠ
1806 B. Hawkins Jrnl. in Georgia Hist. Soc. Coll. (1916) IX. 429 It will be some time before the Creek young will get rid of the remains of that alloy which debased the agents and refugeed their associates.
1972 F. Branfman Voices from Plain of Jars p. xi By the estimate of a United States Senate subcommittee on refugees, well over ten million Indochinese have been killed, wounded or refugeed in the last seven years alone.
2002 Port Hope (Ont.) Evening Guide (Nexis) 7 May 2 In less than 100 days there were more people killed, injured, internally displaced and refugeed, than in the nine years of the Yugoslavian war.
3. intransitive. Originally and chiefly U.S. To be or become a refugee; to flee or live as a refugee.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > exile > [verb (intransitive)] > be refugee
refugee1862
1862 S. K. Holmes Jrnl. 25 Aug. in Brokenburn (1955) 139 The planters generally are moving back to the hills as fast as possible. There are two families refugeeing in our neighbourhood.
1888 P. H. Sheridan Personal Mem. I. xiv. 255 To the doctor she related that the year before she had ‘refugeed’ from East Tennessee.
1936 M. Mitchell Gone with the Wind xviii. 324 The exodus of women, children and old people from the city began... Many..who took the train that night had already refugeed five and six times before.
1981 K. Amis Lett. (2000) 932 Yes, Gross has gone to Weid, refugeeing from Murdoch.
2002 E. Haydon Requiem for Sun 295 Those who had left the Island after them had refugeed.
Derivatives
ˌrefuˈgeeing n.
ΚΠ
1889 W. H. Parkins How I Escaped xvi. 140 This was out of the question; it meant another two weeks of refugeeing, and we were now almost too worn out to travel.
1919 N. W. Stephenson Confederacy vi. 110 It was in this period, too, that amid the terrible shrinkage of the defensive lines ‘refugeeing’ became a feature of Southern life.
1991 Agric. Hist. 65 118 The presence of Union troops and the refugeeing of slaves undermined the paternalistic authority of planters.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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