All 3 Uses of
recoil
in
The Age of Innocence
- "Now we're coming to hard facts," he thought, conscious in himself of the same instinctive recoil that he had so often criticised in his mother and her contemporaries.†
Chpt 12 *recoil = to move backward suddenly
- This might seem to be to his disadvantage with Count Olenski's wife; but Archer was too intelligent to think that a young woman like Ellen Olenska would necessarily recoil from everything that reminded her of her past.†
Chpt 15
- Mrs. Welland exclaimed when her mother's last plan was hinted to her; and from this unthinkable indecency the clan recoiled with a collective shudder.†
Chpt 19recoiled = moved back suddenly
Definition:
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