recoil

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)

Recoil (sense 3) causes this pistol to deflect upwards.

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)

1. (intransitive) To pull back, especially in disgust, horror or astonishment. [from 16th c.]

   He recoiled in disgust when he saw the mess.

2. (intransitive, now rare) To retreat before an opponent. [from 14th c.]
   • 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. (obsolete, intransitive) To retire, withdraw. [15th–18th c.]
   • 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.

   • 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.

   • 1838, Thomas De Quincey, The Household Wreck:

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

   • 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

     Her will, recoiling to her better judgement

4. (of a firearm) To quickly push back when fired

• coiler