recoil

verb/rɪˈkɔɪl/

Frequency rank: #10,764 of 20,003 in the WORDED list (wordfreq data)

Meaning

to suddenly move back in fear, disgust, or shock

Illustration for the English word “recoil”

Example sentence

He felt his body recoil in horror when he saw the spider on his pillow.

Synonyms & related words

More words in ranks 10,701–10,800