resile
Americanverb (used without object)
-
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:
"She does not resile from anything she said then. This email was sent in the context of advice the Duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats."
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2025
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
In Foreign Office usage, however, resile means to appear elastic without actually budging from one's original position.
From Time Magazine Archive
There is thus a manifest tendency to resile from the old theory of Chance, and to take refuge in the new asylum of Law, Order, or Destiny.
From Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws by Buchanan, James
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.
