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

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

Foreign journalists applying for visa extensions would also have "no recourse and no appeal" in the event they are turned down, Saylor said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 14, 2026

So do I have any recourse here, or should I just forget about it and move on with my life?

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026

This year the last thin layer of recourse peeled off.

From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026

‘The treatment of natural things differs greatly from that of other sciences...In the explanation of natural causes, we must necessarily have recourse to a different kind of principle, called “hypothesis” or “supposition”.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

"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

Are there any recourses for this type of situation or is it simply an expensive continuation of lessons learned?

From Slate ● Nov. 28, 2022

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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