recoil

Such a request would usually make listeners recoil instinctively.

From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026

"Some remain in right-handed coils, but some recoil to the left side," Weber says.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 1, 2026

We recoil at AI-generated music, art and writing—expressions of critical thinking, creativity and soul that have been replaced by a machine’s data aggregation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

He smiled after I busted him for looking, which made me recoil in horror and quickly dart over to hide in the pet food aisle.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

And the Beatles didn’t recoil in horror when they were told they had to play eight hours a night, seven days a week.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

Having fashioned a creature from dead body parts, the scientist recoils from the result, which appears to him to be a monster of “unparalleled barbarity,” and abandons his construction.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026

He practices a politics of inspiration, and the Surge recoils at politicians who try to inspire us.

From Slate ● Apr. 5, 2025

Although Watkins has been the center of attention since middle school, when Gottlieb started hearing whispers of an eighth-grade phenom on the recruiting circuit, Watkins recoils when asked about her success.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2023

Historically, when the connection between power and principles is stretched so thin as to be no longer plausible, the public recoils.

From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2023

In the newsreel the destroyer’s guns fire without sound and, half a world away, amid the elegance of an old- fashioned cinema, Tessie Zizmo feels the recoils.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

Washington, by contrast, recoiled at the very notion of monarchy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026

While reviews were largely positive, The Quietus recoiled at the lack of heavy guitar anthems in a scathing screed that employed descriptors like "unintrusive", "clunking" and "by-numbers detritus".

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2025

By that point, Layan had forgotten her completely, Omama says, and recoiled when they met.

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2025

Whenever a stranger gingerly held out a hand for a sniff, he recoiled.

From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2025

Then like black smoke on the wind it recoiled and fled, formless, down the water towards the bright gate between the cliffs.

From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin

But he proves a skilled physical comic, tussling with his boots or recoiling from a kick in the shins from Lucky.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2025

De Guzman, who also curated an art show called “Roots of Cool” about trees, noted that Los Angeles seems to actually shrink during the hotter months, as if recoiling from the sun.

From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2025

“Swim in it? Me?” said retiree Patrice Desrousses, 64, recoiling ever so slightly as he paused in his promenade beside the storied waterway.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2024

So rather than staying in the cycle of having a knee-jerk negative reaction each time I scrolled past a new lurid selfie and then feeling guilty for recoiling, I unfollowed her.

From Salon ● May 7, 2024

“Excuse me?” she says, recoiling, like she can smell his coffee breath.

From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein