Word.ws English Dictionary

recoyle

recoyle is the obsolete spelling 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

Forms of recoyle

third-person singular presentrecoyles
present participlerecoyling
past participlerecoyled
pastrecoyled

Questions about recoyle

What is recoyle the obsolete spelling of?
Recoyle is the obsolete spelling of recoil.

Words near recoyle in the dictionary

  1. recovring
  2. recower
  3. recowered
  4. recowering
  5. recowers
  6. recoyle
  7. recoyled
  8. recoyles
  9. recoyling
  10. recpst
  11. recpt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: recoyle (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: “recoyle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/recoyle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.