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Recoil   /rikˈɔɪl/   Listen
noun
Recoil  n.  
1.
A starting or falling back; a rebound; a shrinking; as, the recoil of nature, or of the blood.
2.
The state or condition of having recoiled. "The recoil from formalism is skepticism."
3.
Specifically, the reaction or rebounding of a firearm when discharged.
Recoil dynamometer (Gunnery), an instrument for measuring the force of the recoil of a firearm.
Recoil escapement. See the Note under Escapement.



verb
Recoil  v. t.  To draw or go back. (Obs.)



Recoil  v. i.  (past & past part. recoiled; pres. part. recoiling)  
1.
To start, roll, bound, spring, or fall back; to take a reverse motion; to be driven or forced backward; to return. "Evil on itself shall back recoil." "The solemnity of her demeanor made it impossible... that we should recoil into our ordinary spirits."
2.
To draw back, as from anything repugnant, distressing, alarming, or the like; to shrink.
3.
To turn or go back; to withdraw one's self; to retire. (Obs.) "To your bowers recoil."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Recoil" Quotes from Famous Books



... you are parleying with the great Enemy of Souls. Oh! if you did but know, if you COULD but know, you would be as decisive in your recoil from him, as you would from hell suddenly opened at your feet. Never mind the future. The one thing you have to do is the thing that lies next to you, divinely ordained for you. What does the 119th Psalm say?—'Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.' We have no light ...
— The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford • Mark Rutherford

... musician strikes us as being too robust. If people would believe me, they would not form the highest idea of Wagner from that which pleases them in him to-day. All that was only devised for convincing the masses, and people like ourselves recoil from it just as one would recoil from too garish a fresco. What concern have we with the irritating brutality of the overture to the "Tannhauser"? Or with the Walkyrie Circus? Whatever has become popular in Wagner's art, including that which has become so outside the theatre, is ...
— The Case Of Wagner, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, and Selected Aphorisms. • Friedrich Nietzsche.

... presence of pressing exigencies were apt to deprive governmental action of the necessary vigor; and his kindness of heart, his disposition always to respect the feelings of others, frequently made him recoil from anything like severity, even when severity was urgently called for. But many of his radical critics have since then revised their judgment sufficiently to admit that Lincoln's policy was, on the whole, the wisest and safest; that a policy of heroic methods, while it has ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln

... though expecting some recoil or hesitation on the part of those to whom he made this statement, but none came. He therefore strode on, and they followed, till arriving at the door of the tall, narrow house, where the light in the highest window gleamed like a signal, he opened it with ...
— Temporal Power • Marie Corelli

... no refuge. She had been too much tired to hear anything the night before, but to-night there was scratching, nibbling, careering, fighting, squeaking, recoil and rally, charge and rout, as the grey Hanover rat fought his successful battle with his black English cousin all over the floors and stairs—nay, once or twice came rushing up and over the bed—frightening its occupant almost out of her senses, as she cowered ...
— Love and Life • Charlotte M. Yonge


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