recoil

Although the resulting recoil force is extremely small, it acts continuously over millions of years.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 25, 2026

Many judges recoil from that conclusion, and the constitutional inquiry becomes personal.

From Slate ● Jun. 17, 2026

Kieran Trippier was the only player to visibly recoil before the substitute grabbed the ball and beckoned his dazed team-mates forward in an attempt to quickly get the game back under way.

From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2026

Why do we recoil when a leader is vulgar and violent in his language and thinking?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026

Whenever anyone said, or wrote, “Malcolm X, the number two Black Muslim—” I would recoil.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

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

Historically, when the connection between power and principles is stretched so thin as to be no longer plausible, the public recoils.

From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2023

But even now she recoils at the thought of living with her own in-laws.

From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026

Washington, by contrast, recoiled at the very notion of monarchy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026

Amid the rebuke, brands have recoiled back within the antiseptic neutrality where they’re most comfortable: irrelevant celebrity cameos, cheap millennial nostalgia, unmoored wistfulness for simpler days.

From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2026

By that point, Layan had forgotten her completely, Omama says, and recoiled when they met.

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2025

At first he had recoiled at the suggestion, but the doctor said holding the baby might help him with the process of grieving.

From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri

He said: "I said what I said back in February, I am not recoiling from that."

From BBC ● May 10, 2026

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

We’ll see if voters can reward this one while recoiling.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 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

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