different between quail vs recoil

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kwe?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English quaylen, from Middle Dutch queilen, qu?len, from Old Dutch *quelan, from Proto-West Germanic *kwelan, from Proto-Germanic *kwelan? (“to suffer”). Doublet of queal.

Alternative forms

• quele (obsolete)
• queal (obsolete)

Verb

quail (third-person singular simple present quails, present participle quailing, simple past and past participle quailed)

1. (intransitive) To waste away; to fade, to wither [from 15th c.]
2. (transitive, now rare) To daunt or frighten (someone) [from 16th c.]
   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia: or, Buried Alive: A Novel, London; Boston, Mass.: Faber and Faber, ?ISBN; republished in The Avignon Quintet, London: Faber, published 1992, ?ISBN, page 358:

     To tell the truth the prospect rather quailed him – wandering about in the gloomy corridors of a nunnery.

3. (intransitive) To lose heart or courage; to be daunted or fearful. [from 16th c.]
4. (intransitive) Of courage, faith, etc.: to slacken, to give way. [from 16th c.]

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English quayle, quaile, quaille, from Anglo-Norman quaille, from Late Latin quaccola (“quail”).

Noun

quail (plural quails or quail)

1. Any of various small game birds of the genera Coturnix, Anurophasis or Perdicula in the Old World family Phasianidae or of the New World family Odontophoridae.
   • 1954, Wildlife Review (issues 75-83, page 44)

     Quail require little water, so there is no point to putting in a guzzler if there is any permanent water within travel range.

2. (uncountable) The meat from this bird eaten as food.
3. (obsolete) A prostitute, so called because the quail was thought to be a very amorous bird.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• partridge

Etymology 3

From Middle English quaylen, qwaylen, from Old French coaillier, from Latin co?gul?re. Doublet of coagulate.

Verb

quail (third-person singular simple present quails, present participle quailing, simple past and past participle quailed)

1. (obsolete) To curdle or coagulate, as milk does.

Anagrams

• quali

English

Etymology

From Old French reculer.

Pronunciation

• (verb)
  • IPA^(key): /???k??l/
  • Rhymes: -??l
• (noun)
  • IPA^(key): /??i?k??l/

Noun

recoil (countable and uncountable, plural recoils)

1. A starting or falling back; a rebound; a shrinking.

2. The state or condition of having recoiled.
   • 1850, Frederick William Robertson, second address delivered to the members of the Working Men's Institute, Brighton

     The recoil from formalism is skepticism.

3. (firearms) The energy transmitted back to the shooter from a firearm which has fired. Recoil is a function of the weight of the weapon, the weight of the projectile, and the speed at which it leaves the muzzle.
4. An escapement in which, after each beat, the scape-wheel recoils slightly.

Synonyms

• (firearms): kick

Translations

Verb

recoil (third-person singular simple present recoils, present participle recoiling, simple past and past participle recoiled)

1. (intransitive) To pull back, especially in disgust, horror or astonishment. [from 16th c.]

2. (intransitive, now rare) To retreat before an opponent. [from 14th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.11:

     that rude rout […] forced them, how ever strong and stout / They were, as well approv'd in many a doubt, / Backe to recule […]

3. (obsolete, intransitive) To retire, withdraw. [15th-18th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.x:

     Ye both forwearied be: therefore a whyle / Iread you rest, and to your bowres recoyle.

   • 1838, Thomas De Quincey, The Household Wreck

     The solemnity of her demeanor made it impossible […] that we should recoil into our ordinary spirits.
4. (of a firearm) To quickly push back when fired

Translations

Anagrams

• coiler