# recoil
## English
### Etymology

From Old French reculer.

### Pronunciation

* (verb)
** IPA: /ɹɪˈkɔɪl/
*** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Audio (US):(file)
** Rhymes: -ɔɪl
* (noun)
** IPA: /ˈɹiːkɔɪl/
*** Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Noun

recoil (countable and uncountable, plural recoils)
* A starting or falling back; a rebound; a shrinking.
    the recoil of nature, or of the blood
* The state or condition of having recoiled.
** 1850, Frederick William Robertson, second address delivered to the members of the Working Men's Institute, Brighton:The recoil from formalism is skepticism.
* (firearms) The energy transmitted back to the shooter from a firearm which has fired. Recoil is a function of the weight of the weapon, the weight of the projectile, and the speed at which it leaves the muzzle.
* An escapement in which, after each beat, the scape-wheel recoils slightly.

#### Synonyms

* (firearms): kick

#### Derived terms

* counterrecoil
* recoil pad
* recoil spring
* recoil start

#### Translations
### Verb

recoil (third-person singular simple present recoils, present participle recoiling, simple past and past participle recoiled) (intransitive)
* To pull back, especially in disgust, horror or astonishment. [from 16th c.]
    He recoiled in disgust when he saw the mess.
* (archaic) To retreat before an opponent. [from 14th c.]
** 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:that rude rout […] forced them, how ever strong and stout / They were, as well approv'd in many a doubt, / Backe to recule […]
* (weaponry) Of a firearm: to quickly push back when fired.
* (obsolete) To retire, withdraw. [15th–18th c.]
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:Ye both forwearied be: therefore a whyle / Iread you rest, and to your bowres recoyle.
** c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:Her will, recoiling to her better judgement
** 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:Evil on itself shall back recoil.
** 1648, Robert Herrick, “A Panegerick to Sir Lewis Pemberton”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […] John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho[mas] Hunt, […], →OCLC, page 169:Manners knovvs diſtance, and a man unrude / VVo'd ſoon recoile, and not intrude / His Stomach to a ſecond Meale.
** 1838, Thomas De Quincey, The Household Wreck:The solemnity of her demeanor made it impossible […] that we should recoil into our ordinary spirits.

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Anagrams

* coiler