refugee

Etymology

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.

noun

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.
   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. 1964, John F. Kennedy, A Nation of Immigrants, Revised and Enlarged edition, Harper & Row, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 78–79
2. A person seeking refuge due to a natural disaster, war, etc.
   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. 2022/06/13, “Video shows Zelensky call on world to help Taiwan before China invades”, in Taiwan News, archived from the original on 2022-06-13
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.
   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. 2010, Brian Harrison, Finding a Role?: The United Kingdom 1970-1990, page 2181

verb

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