resile
Americanverb (used without object)
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to spring back; rebound; resume the original form or position, as an elastic body.
-
to shrink back; recoil.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of resile
1520–30; < Middle French resilir < Latin resilīre to spring back; see resilient
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:
"Though ministers need not resile from previously stated views when directly asked about them, they should exercise discretion and should not take part in the public debate," he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2024
But he added he did not "resile from my strongly held views" on the conflict.
From BBC ● Jan. 24, 2024
We've also seen him resile from some of the threats or claims he made during the campaign...
From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2016
The strict dictionary definition of "resile" is "draw back, recoil . . . return to its original position as an elastic body."
From Time Magazine Archive
You perhaps know that the children born under the handfasting engagement were reckoned lawful children, and not bastards, though the parents did afterwards resile.
From Notes and Queries, Number 48, September 28, 1850 by Various
There is no resiling from his admiration for George Bush, who is lauded as a man of "genuine integrity" and "a true idealist".
From The Guardian ● Sep. 4, 2010
One purpose of resiling is to wait for one's antagonist to commit a blunder that weakens him, or a provocation that provides the Resiler with a casus belli.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some might call it "dithering," others "muddling through," but the Foreign Office likes to call it "resiling."
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
