recoil

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recoil

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From Old French reculer.

• (verb)
  • IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈkɔɪl/

    • Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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  • Rhymes: -ɔɪl
• (noun)
  • IPA^(key): /ˈɹiːkɔɪl/

    • Audio (Southern England):

      (file)

recoil (countable and uncountable, plural recoils)

1. A starting or falling back; a rebound; a shrinking.

   the recoil of nature, or of the blood

2. The state or condition of having recoiled.
   • 1850, Frederick William Robertson, second address delivered to the members of the Working Men's Institute, Brighton:

     The recoil from formalism is skepticism.

3. (firearms) The energy transmitted back to the shooter from a firearm which has fired. Recoil is a function of the weight of the weapon, the weight of the projectile, and the speed at which it leaves the muzzle.
4. An escapement in which, after each beat, the scape-wheel recoils slightly.

• (firearms): kick

recoil (third-person singular simple present recoils, present participle recoiling, simple past and past participle recoiled) (intransitive)

1. To pull back, especially in disgust, horror or astonishment.

   He recoiled in disgust when he saw the mess.

2. (archaic) To retreat before an opponent.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     that rude rout […] forced them, how ever strong and stout / They were, as well approv'd in many a doubt, / Backe to recule […]

3. (weaponry) Of a firearm: to quickly push back when fired.
4. (obsolete) To retire, withdraw.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Ye both forwearied be: therefore a whyle / Iread you rest, and to your bowres recoyle.

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Her will, recoiling to her better judgement

   • 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634:  [Comus], London: [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, , published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus:  (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:

     Evil on itself shall back recoil.

   • 1648, Robert Herrick, “A Panegerick to Sir Lewis Pemberton”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine , London: John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho Hunt, , →OCLC, page 169:

     Manners knovvs diſtance, and a man unrude / VVo'd ſoon recoile, and not intrude / His Stomach to a ſecond Meale.

   • 1838, Thomas De Quincey, The Household Wreck:

     The solemnity of her demeanor made it impossible […] that we should recoil into our ordinary spirits.

• coiler