recoil

We recoil at AI-generated music, art and writing—expressions of critical thinking, creativity and soul that have been replaced by a machine’s data aggregation.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

Years have turned over since the social recoil of 2020.

From Slate ● 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

Although the resulting recoil force is extremely small, it acts continuously over millions of years.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 25, 2026

I feel wind and droplets, and—as a kid who lived through a pandemic—I recoil in horror, jumping backward into Jonesy.

From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell

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

But it is perhaps an ominous sign that she physically recoils after saying that.

From New York Times ● Apr. 16, 2023

According to conventional nuclear physics, this was extraordinary, even bizarre: nuclei of different weights would be expected to emit disintegration products of widely variable energies, with the heavy elements producing the more energetic recoils.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

But other voters simply recoiled at having to select a candidate they viewed as entirely unqualified.

From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2026

I’ve always recoiled at having dinner on a first date.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026

Walking into his kitchen, Tim Yoder recoiled at a message on his refrigerator door: “Shop Samsung water filters.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 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

The other guard recoiled, but in the next instant, she clutched her stomach.

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

He said: "I said what I said back in February, I am not recoiling from that."

From BBC ● May 10, 2026

Economic uncertainty has tempered demand among even the wealthiest clients who had lifted sales for years, while aspirational shoppers are recoiling from persistent price increases.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 2026

We’ll see if voters can reward this one while recoiling.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 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

I reached to steady him but he jerked away, violently recoiling from my touch.

From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys