Adjacent Words

resile definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: pull out from an agreement, contract, statement, etc.; "The landlord cannot resile from the lease"
2: spring back; spring away from an impact; "The rubber ball bounced"; "These particles do not resile but they unite after they collide" [syn: bounce, resile, take a hop, spring, bound, rebound, recoil, reverberate, ricochet]
3: formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure; "He retracted his earlier statements about his religion"; "She abjured her beliefs" [syn: abjure, recant, forswear, retract, resile]
4: return to the original position or state after being stretched or compressed; "The rubber tubes resile"

Merriam Webster's

intransitive verb (resiled; resiling) Etymology: Late Latin & Latin; Late Latin resilire to withdraw, from Latin, to recoil Date: 1529 recoil, retract; especially to return to a prior position <resile from an agreement>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.intr. 1 (of something stretched or compressed) recoil to resume a former size and shape; spring back. 2 have or show resilience or recuperative power. 3 (usu. foll. by from) withdraw from a course of action. Etymology: obs. F resilir or L resilire (as RE-, salire jump)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Resile Re*sile" (r?-z?l"), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Resiled (-z?ld"); p. pr. & vb. n. Resiling.] [L. resilire to leap or spring back; pref. re- re- + salire to leap, spring. See Salient.] To start back; to recoil; to recede from a purpose. --J. Ellis.