Library / English Dictionary

RECOIL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A movement back from an impact

Synonyms:

backlash; rebound; recoil; repercussion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("recoil" is a kind of...):

motion; movement (a natural event that involves a change in the position or location of something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "recoil"):

bounce; bouncing (rebounding from an impact (or series of impacts))

resilience; resiliency (an occurrence of rebounding or springing back)

carom; ricochet (a glancing rebound)

Derivation:

recoil (spring back; spring away from an impact)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The backward jerk of a gun when it is fired

Synonyms:

kick; recoil

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("recoil" is a kind of...):

motion; movement (a natural event that involves a change in the position or location of something)

Derivation:

recoil (spring back, as from a forceful thrust)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Spring back, as from a forceful thrust

Example:

The gun kicked back into my shoulder

Synonyms:

kick; kick back; recoil

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "recoil" is one way to...):

bounce; bound; rebound; recoil; resile; reverberate; ricochet; spring; take a hop (spring back; spring away from an impact)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

recoil (the backward jerk of a gun when it is fired)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Spring back; spring away from an impact

Example:

These particles do not resile but they unite after they collide

Synonyms:

bounce; bound; rebound; recoil; resile; reverberate; ricochet; spring; take a hop

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "recoil" is one way to...):

bound; jump; leap; spring (move forward by leaps and bounds)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "recoil"):

kick; kick back; recoil (spring back, as from a forceful thrust)

bound off; skip (bound off one point after another)

carom (rebound after hitting)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Derivation:

recoil (a movement back from an impact)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Draw back, as with fear or pain

Example:

she flinched when they showed the slaughtering of the calf

Synonyms:

cringe; flinch; funk; quail; recoil; shrink; squinch; wince

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "recoil" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "recoil"):

retract; shrink back (pull away from a source of disgust or fear)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Come back to the originator of an action with an undesired effect

Example:

the political movie backlashed on the Democrats

Synonyms:

backfire; backlash; recoil

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "recoil" is one way to...):

come about; fall out; go on; hap; happen; occur; pass; pass off; take place (come to pass)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Credits

 Context examples: 

A type of connective tissue consisting of an outer mantel of microfibrils and an amorphous elastin inner core capable of repetitive cycles of extension and recoil.

(Elastic Fiber, NCI Thesaurus)

Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

True that his gentle and thoughtful nature recoiled from the grim work of war, yet in those days of martial orders and militant brotherhoods there was no gulf fixed betwixt the priest and the soldier.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

One cannot violate the promptings of one's nature without having that nature recoil upon itself.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

This, as we looked, trailed under the door, which with the recoil from its bursting open, had swung back to its old position.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But at the last moment, as he stepped into the upstairs entrance, he recoiled and turned and fled through the swarming ghetto.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It made me sick at heart to see, and my hand recoils from writing it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I recoiled before contemplation of that frightful death, and for a moment I entertained the wild idea of seizing Maud in my arms and leaping overboard.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Now that you think me disqualified to become your husband, you recoil from my touch as if I were some toad or ape.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The banker recoiled in horror.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)