Word.ws English Dictionary

recoiled

recoiled is the past participle of recoil.

Meaning of recoil

Verb

recoil (third-person singular simple present recoils, present participle recoiling, simple past and past participle recoiled)

  1. (intransitive) To pull back, especially in disgust, horror or astonishment.
    • He recoiled in disgust when he saw the mess.
  2. (archaic, intransitive) To recoil before an opponent.
    • that rude rout […] forced them, how ever strong and stout / They were, as well approv'd in many a doubt, / Backe to recule […]1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  3. (intransitive) Of a firearm: to quickly push back when fired.
  4. (intransitive, obsolete) To retire, withdraw.
    • Ye both forwearied be: therefore a whyle / Iread you rest, and to your bowres recoyle.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

See all 8 meanings of recoil

Questions about recoiled

What is recoiled the past participle of?
Recoiled is the past participle of recoil.

Words near recoiled in the dictionary

  1. recoil pads
  2. recoil spring
  3. recoil springs
  4. recoil start
  5. recoil starts
  6. recoiled
  7. recoiler
  8. recoilers
  9. recoiling
  10. recoilingly
  11. recoilings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: recoiled (page history and authors); recoil (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “recoiled.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/recoiled. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.