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e a reverse motion; to be driven or forced backward; to return. Evil on itself shall back recoil. Milton. The solemnity of her demeanor made it impossible . . . that we should recoil into our ordinary spirits. De Quincey.

One who, or that which, recoils.

In the manner of a recoil.

Recoil. [R.]

n breech-loading firearms, the block behind the barrel which receives the pressure due to recoil.

apprehension; in fear; apprehensive. [Afraid comes after the noun it limits.] "Back they recoiled, afraid." Milton.

The common recoil escapement.

The ascription of human feelings or passions to God, or to a polytheistic deity. In its recoil from the gross anthropopathy of the vulgar notions, it falls into the vacuum of absolute apathy. Hare.

nd determined by their utility; also, the theory that the sensibility to pleasure and the recoil from pain are the only motives which influence human desires and actions, and that these are the sufficient explanation of ethical and jural conceptions.

hrough the cascabel of a cannon and secured to ringbolts in the ship's side, to limit the recoil of the gun when it is discharged.

their interests collided. Across this space the attraction urges them. They collide, they recoil, they oscillate. Tyndall. No longer rocking and swaying, but clashing and colliding. Carlyle.

semi-automatic pistol with removable magazine in the handle holding seven cartridges. The recoil extracts and ejects the empty cartridge case, and reloads ready for another shot. Called also Browning, and Colt-Browning, pistol.

A blow in an opposite direction; a stroke that stops motion or cause a recoil.

Making a stroke without recoil; deadbeat. Dead-stroke hammer (Mach.), a power hammer having a spring interposed between the driving mechanism and the hammer head, or helve, to lessen the recoil of the hammer and reduce the shock upon the mechanism.

Making a beat without recoil; giving indications by a single beat or excursion; -- said of galvanometers and other instruments in which the needle or index moves to the extent of its deflection and stops with little or no further oscillation. Deadbeat escapement. See under Escapement.

The slender recoil spring which regulates the motion of the balance in a timepiece.

A disappearing gun carriage in which the recoil is checked by cylinders containing liquid and air, the air when compressed furnishing the power for restoring the gun to the firing position. It is used with some English and European heavy guns.

Not resilient; not recoiling or rebounding; inelastic.

To recoil; -- said of a musket, cannon, etc.

vation or depression and training of the gun, and fitting with a device for taking up the recoil.