Word.ws English Dictionary

recoils

recoils is the plural of recoil.

recoils is the third-person singular simple present indicative of recoil.

Meaning of recoil

Noun

recoil (countable and uncountable, plural recoils)

  1. A starting or falling back; a rebound; a shrinking.
    • the recoil of nature, or of the blood
  2. The state or condition of having recoiled.
    • The recoil from formalism is skepticism.1850, Frederick William Robertson, second address delivered to the members of the Working Men's Institute, Brighton
  3. 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.
  4. An escapement in which, after each beat, the scape-wheel recoils slightly.

See all 8 meanings of recoil

Questions about recoils

What is recoils the plural of?
Recoils is the plural of recoil.

Words near recoils in the dictionary

  1. recoilless rifles
  2. recoillessly
  3. recoillessness
  4. recoilment
  5. recoilments
  6. recoils
  7. recoin
  8. recoinage
  9. recoinages
  10. recoined
  11. recoiner

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: recoils (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.

Last updated:

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