recoil

Simplifying the steering system was an important part of achieving that size while retaining propulsion based on photon recoil.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 18, 2026

We recoil at AI-generated music, art and writing—expressions of critical thinking, creativity and soul that have been replaced by a machine’s data aggregation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

Years have turned over since the social recoil of 2020.

From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026

He smiled after I busted him for looking, which made me recoil in horror and quickly dart over to hide in the pet food aisle.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

Her hands find Madame’s face, and the old woman’s cheek is so hot that Marie-Laure’s fingers recoil as though scalded.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

Maekar recoils at the thought of a child of royal birth subsisting on salted beef.

From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2026

Having fashioned a creature from dead body parts, the scientist recoils from the result, which appears to him to be a monster of “unparalleled barbarity,” and abandons his construction.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026

He practices a politics of inspiration, and the Surge recoils at politicians who try to inspire us.

From Slate ● Apr. 5, 2025

Although Watkins has been the center of attention since middle school, when Gottlieb started hearing whispers of an eighth-grade phenom on the recruiting circuit, Watkins recoils when asked about her success.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2023

According to conventional nuclear physics, this was extraordinary, even bizarre: nuclei of different weights would be expected to emit disintegration products of widely variable energies, with the heavy elements producing the more energetic recoils.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

I’ve always recoiled at having dinner on a first date.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026

Walking into his kitchen, Tim Yoder recoiled at a message on his refrigerator door: “Shop Samsung water filters.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026

While reviews were largely positive, The Quietus recoiled at the lack of heavy guitar anthems in a scathing screed that employed descriptors like "unintrusive", "clunking" and "by-numbers detritus".

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2025

He recoiled from me, and I couldn’t blame him; he had no idea where he was or who I was.

From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2025

Instinctively, Koffi recoiled, but the movement was too fast.

From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray

But he proves a skilled physical comic, tussling with his boots or recoiling from a kick in the shins from Lucky.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2025

De Guzman, who also curated an art show called “Roots of Cool” about trees, noted that Los Angeles seems to actually shrink during the hotter months, as if recoiling from the sun.

From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2025

“Swim in it? Me?” said retiree Patrice Desrousses, 64, recoiling ever so slightly as he paused in his promenade beside the storied waterway.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2024

What I'm suggesting is that our mass recoiling at Sara Ramirez's Che Diaz on "And Just Like That…" may be misdirected.

From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2023

She pictured him puffing up the stairs, squeezing through the door, looking dis-approvingly at the clutter in their house, recoiling from Poppy’s sticky hands—no, it wouldn’t do.

From "The City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau