RECOILED

Verb

recoiled

past participle of recoil

Source: Wiktionary


RECOIL

Re*coil", v. i. [imp. & p. p. Recoiled; p. pr. & vb. n. Recoiling.] Etym: [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.

Definition: 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.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

25 November 2024

ONCHOCERCIASIS

(noun) infestation with slender threadlike roundworms (filaria) deposited under the skin by the bite of black fleas; when the eyes are involved it can result in blindness; common in Africa and tropical America


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Coffee Trivia

Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.

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