recoil
Americanverb (used without object)
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recoils,
present (3rd person singular)
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recoiled,
past participle, past
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recoiling
present participle
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to draw back; start or shrink back, as in alarm, horror, or disgust.
-
to spring or fly back, as in consequence of force of impact or the force of the discharge, as a firearm.
- Synonyms:
- rebound
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to spring or come back; react (usually followed by on orupon ).
Plots frequently recoil upon the plotters.
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Physics. (of an atom, a nucleus, or a particle) to undergo a change in momentum as a result either of a collision with an atom, a nucleus, or a particle or of the emission of a particle.
noun
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an act of recoiling.
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the distance through which a weapon moves backward after discharging.
verb
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to jerk back, as from an impact or violent thrust
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(often foll by from) to draw back in fear, horror, or disgust
to recoil from the sight of blood
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to go wrong, esp so as to hurt the perpetrator
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(of a nucleus, atom, molecule, or elementary particle) to change momentum as a result of the emission of a photon or particle
noun
-
-
the backward movement of a gun when fired
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the distance moved
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-
the motion acquired by a particle as a result of its emission of a photon or other particle
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the act of recoiling
Synonym Usage
See wince 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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recoilsimple
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recoilssimple
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have recoiledperfect
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has recoiledperfect
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am recoilingprogressive
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are recoilingprogressive
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is recoilingprogressive
-
have been recoilingperfect progressive
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has been recoilingperfect progressive
Past
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recoiledsimple
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had recoiledperfect
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was recoilingprogressive
-
were recoilingprogressive
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had been recoilingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of recoil
1175–1225; Middle English recoilen, reculen (v.) < Old French reculer, equivalent to re- re- + -culer, verbal derivative of cul rump, buttocks; see culet
Explanation
A recoil is a movement backwards, usually from some force or impact. The recoil of a gun is a backward movement caused by momentum. Your trip to the shooting range might make your mom recoil — from horror, not momentum. Recoil has both a verb and a noun form, meaning any kind of rebound or spring backwards. It doesn’t even have to be from an actual force. You might recoil when you see a snake, or recoil at the thought of having to eat squid. In those cases it’s more like a cringe or a flinch from something that’s scary, disgusting, or painful. Eating squid might in fact be all of those things to you.
Vocabulary lists containing recoil
The Lingo of Body Language
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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List 7
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Such a request would usually make listeners recoil instinctively.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
"Some remain in right-handed coils, but some recoil to the left side," Weber says.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 1, 2026
He smiled after I busted him for looking, which made me recoil in horror and quickly dart over to hide in the pet food aisle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Rob Jonas, Luminate’s CEO, suggested that this uptick might be part of a larger societal recoil against AI’s creep into every aspect of society, including the arrival of AI music.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Her hands find Madame’s face, and the old woman’s cheek is so hot that Marie-Laure’s fingers recoil as though scalded.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Having fashioned a creature from dead body parts, the scientist recoils from the result, which appears to him to be a monster of “unparalleled barbarity,” and abandons his construction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026
He practices a politics of inspiration, and the Surge recoils at politicians who try to inspire us.
From Slate ● Apr. 5, 2025
As someone who recoils at the mere thought of candied peel or maraschino cherries, I too have reflexively avoided fruitcake for most of my life.
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2023
You see Oppenheimer recoil, even if what he recoils from is left pointedly out of frame.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2023
When she sees his number appear, she recoils, as if she’s just seen a poisonous creature.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
With high inflation ravaging the economy, Greenspan recoiled when he learned Ford’s advisers planned a grassroots movement to encourage personal savings by passing out buttons that proclaimed, “Whip Inflation Now.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
I’ve always recoiled at having dinner on a first date.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026
Amid the rebuke, brands have recoiled back within the antiseptic neutrality where they’re most comfortable: irrelevant celebrity cameos, cheap millennial nostalgia, unmoored wistfulness for simpler days.
From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2026
By that point, Layan had forgotten her completely, Omama says, and recoiled when they met.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2025
A thought fed into her mind, and she recoiled because for the first time ever, at least so directly, it wasn’t hers.
From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi
But when the pressure heightens and matters boil over between the quartet, Wilde carefully examines the resulting eruption instead of recoiling.
From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026
Economic uncertainty has tempered demand among even the wealthiest clients who had lifted sales for years, while aspirational shoppers are recoiling from persistent price increases.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 2026
De Guzman, who also curated an art show called “Roots of Cool” about trees, noted that Los Angeles seems to actually shrink during the hotter months, as if recoiling from the sun.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2025
“Swim in it? Me?” said retiree Patrice Desrousses, 64, recoiling ever so slightly as he paused in his promenade beside the storied waterway.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2024
Rose hissed like a recoiling snake, her hand reaching to cover RiRi’s eyes in anticipation of Miig dancing an electric jig, sizzling like a piece of frying meat.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
