refugee

From French réfugié, past participle of réfugier (“to take refuge”), describing early French Protestants seeking refuge after the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685. Analyzable as refuge +‎ -ee. Displaced native Old English flīema.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛfjʊd͡ʒiː/, /ɹɛfjʊˈd͡ʒiː/
• Rhymes: -iː

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refugee (plural refugees)

1. A person seeking refuge in a foreign country out of fear of political persecution or the prospect of such persecution in their home country, i.e., a person seeking political asylum.
   • 1964, John F. Kennedy, A Nation of Immigrants‎, Revised and Enlarged edition, Harper & Row, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 78–79:

     In 1962 a special law had to be passed to permit the immigration of several thousand Chinese refugees who had escaped from Communist China to Hong Kong.

2. A person seeking refuge due to a natural disaster, war, etc.
   • 2022 June 13, “Video shows Zelensky call on world to help Taiwan before China invades”, in Taiwan News‎, archived from the original on 13 June 2022:

     Alluding to the regional consequences of a war in the Taiwan Strait, Zelensky pointed out that there could be millions of refugees, similar to the result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

3. A person formally granted political or economic asylum by a country other than their home country.
4. (by extension) A person who flees one place or institution for another.
   • 2010, Brian Harrison, Finding a Role?: The United Kingdom 1970-1990, page 2181:

     Why did the SDP dream eventually fade? Partly because it succeeded far better inside parliament than out. It might attract some inner-city Catholic traditionalist Labour refugees from Labour's left, but many of those were already gentrifying.

• flightling

refugee (third-person singular simple present refugees, present participle refugeeing, simple past and past participle refugeed)

1. (transitive, US, historical) To convey (slaves) away from the advance of the federal forces.