All 5 Uses of
recoil
in
The House of Mirth
- Trenor's face darkened to rage: her recoil of abhorrence had called out the primitive man.†
Chpt 1.13
- Her soft nature recoiled from this ordeal, which had none of the stimulus of conflict to goad her through it.†
Chpt 1.13 *
- He was already annoyed with himself for having left Monte Carlo, where he had intended to pass the week which remained to him before sailing; but it would now be difficult to return on his steps without an appearance of inconsistency from which his pride recoiled.†
Chpt 2.1
- But compassion, in a moment, got the better of her instinctive recoil.†
Chpt 2.2
- Rosedale, reddening to the roots of his glossy hair, received this announcement with a recoil which carried him to his feet, where he halted before her in an attitude of almost comic discomfiture.†
Chpt 2.7
Definition:
-
(recoil) to move backward suddenly (sometimes figuratively)especially:
- the backward jerk of a gun or cannon when it is fired
- when a person flinches (suddenly draws back) from someone or something, as with fear, disgust, or pain
- when a person is emotionally repulsed, as by disgust
- when something intended to go in one direction figuratively falls back in the opposite direction; for example, a story told to hurt someone that comes back to hurt the teller