recoil

1. 1.

   the backward jerk of a gun when it is fired

   Synonymskick

   Broadermovement
2. 2.

   a movement back from an impact

   Synonymsrepercussionreboundbacklash

   Broadermovement

   Narrowerbounceresiliencericochet

Other forms of recoil

plural

recoils·

past tense

recoiled·

present participle

recoiling·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about recoil

What does recoil mean?

recoil means "draw back, as with fear or pain". That is the primary sense; the word has 6 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in recoil?

recoil has 2 syllables: re-coil. The stress falls on "coil". In IPA it is /ɹiˈkɔɪl/.

What is another word for recoil?

Close synonyms include flinch, squinch, funk, cringe, shrink. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is recoil a common word?

recoil is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with recoil?

2 words rhyme with recoil. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.