Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Recoil

Re·coil′ (rē·koil′), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Recoiled (-koild′); p. pr. & vb. n. Recoiling.] [OE. recoilen, F. reculer, fr. L. pref. re- re- + culus the fundament. The English word was perhaps influenced in form by accoil.]

1. To start, roll, bound, spring, or fall back; to take a reverse motion; to be driven or forced backward; to return.

Evil on itself shall back recoil. Milton.

The solemnity of her demeanor made it impossible . . . that we should recoil into our ordinary spirits. De Quincey.

2. To draw back, as from anything repugnant, distressing, alarming, or the like; to shrink. Shak.

3. To turn or go back; to withdraw one's self; to retire. [Obs.] "To your bowers recoil." Spenser.

Re·coil′, v. t. To draw or go back. [Obs.] Spenser.

Re·coil′, n. 1. A starting or falling back; a rebound; a shrinking; as, the recoil of nature, or of the blood.

2. The state or condition of having recoiled.

The recoil from formalism is skepticism. F. W. Robertson.

3. Specifically, the reaction or rebounding of a firearm when discharged.

Recoil dynamometer (Gunnery), an instrument for measuring the force of the recoil of a firearm. — Recoil escapement. See the Note under Escapement.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.