recourse

American  

[ree-kawrs, -kohrs, ri-kawrs, -kohrs] / ˈri kɔrs, -koʊrs, rɪˈkɔrs, -ˈkoʊrs /

noun

• recourses
  plural

1. access or resort to a person or thing for help or protection.

   to have recourse to the courts for justice.

2. a person or thing resorted to for help or protection.

3. the right to collect from a maker or endorser of a negotiable instrument. The endorser may add the words “without recourse” on the instrument, thereby transferring the instrument without assuming any liability.

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recourse British  

/ rɪˈkɔːs /

noun

1. the act of resorting to a person, course of action, etc, in difficulty or danger (esp in the phrase have recourse to )

2. a person, organization, or course of action that is turned to for help, protection, etc

3. the right to demand payment, esp from the drawer or endorser of a bill of exchange or other negotiable instrument when the person accepting it fails to pay

4. a qualified endorsement on such a negotiable instrument, by which the endorser protects himself or herself from liability to subsequent holders

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• recourses
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of recourse

1350–1400; Middle English recours < Old French < Late Latin recursus, Latin: return, retreat, noun use of past participle of recurrere to run back; see recur

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Explanation

Recourse is a source of help. If you're failing trigonometry in spite of studying until your brain hurts, you may have no recourse but to hire a tutor. Recourse comes from the Latin word recursus, meaning “to run back or retreat.” People seek recourse from such difficulties as debt, illness and legal woes, so you can think of recourse as the words "retreating from curses" squished together. For the record, though, the cursus in recursus means course, not curse. Actually, no one knows where the word curse comes from. There may be some connection between cursus and curses, but then again, there may not be.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

recourse recourses

But if they do consider this bike ride unconscionable and at odds with the values of the Keystone State and this nation, some recourse is possible.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

Within a day, Sanchez was on a deportation flight back to Havana in shackles with no recourse to appeal.

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026

Do my daughters have any legal recourse to recover the $20,000 their grandmother intended for their college education?

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026

Helicopter pilots are trained to stay away from those conditions, Cress said, because the lack of altitude and forward momentum give them little recourse if there is engine trouble.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

As their funds were contractually stuck inside Scion Capital for some time, the investors’ only recourse was to send him disturbed-sounding e-mails asking him to justify his new strategy.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

"There is no doubt whatsoever that the bank will fight this case and use all recourses available to it," it said.

From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2025

“If they over-excavated, and if they’re not going to do anything about it, what are my recourses? I don’t know.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2025

Still, it gave them none of the recourses available to whistleblowers at other federal law enforcement agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S.

From Washington Times ● May 30, 2023

You don’t say more about how specifically the money was raised or how you found out it’s gone, so it’s hard to say what recourses you might have.

From Slate ● Oct. 12, 2021

Press maintains all copy- rights to "Terminal Compromise" and does not, either intentionally or otherwise, explicitly or implicitly, waive any rights to this piece of work or recourses deemed appropriate.

From Terminal Compromise: computer terrorism: when privacy and freedom are the victims: a novel by Winn Schwartau

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