recoil

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

“The mistake was natural, for most men recoil from war and the danger it entails. Washington was one who didn’t. He was part of the small class who find war invigorating and seductive.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

She pulls me toward her as I recoil.

From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

Maekar recoils at the thought of a child of royal birth subsisting on salted beef.

From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2026

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

You see Oppenheimer recoil, even if what he recoils from is left pointedly out of frame.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2023

Brother Khoi recoils, vowing to never eat anything with wings.

From "Inside Out and Back Again" by Thanhha Lai

With high inflation ravaging the economy, Greenspan recoiled when he learned Ford’s advisers planned a grassroots movement to encourage personal savings by passing out buttons that proclaimed, “Whip Inflation Now.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026

The Hungarian photographer recoiled at the work of American photographers such as Ansel Adams, whose “cult of technical perfection,” according to Patricia Albers, risked “killing their subjects with irrelevant detail.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026

Amid the rebuke, brands have recoiled back within the antiseptic neutrality where they’re most comfortable: irrelevant celebrity cameos, cheap millennial nostalgia, unmoored wistfulness for simpler days.

From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2026

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

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2025

Reaching out for the wall to keep myself oriented, I touched an inmate’s shirt and recoiled.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover

But when the pressure heightens and matters boil over between the quartet, Wilde carefully examines the resulting eruption instead of recoiling.

From Salon ● Jul. 5, 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