resile means to start back; to recoil; to recede from a purpose. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
resile is pronounced /ɹɪˈzaɪl/.
Why “resile” is a great word
RESILE — [Verb] To recoil, retract, or spring back, especially from a purpose or to a prior position. From Middle French resiler, from Latin resiliō ("to spring back"), from re- ("back") + saliō ("to jump, leap"). First attested in English c. 1520–30. Unlike "recoil," which suggests a sudden, involuntary flinch from the frightful, or "retract," which focuses on the disavowal of a statement, to resile is to enact a deliberate, elastic withdrawal, often legalistic, carrying the latent energy of a spring uncoiling. It is the contract quietly abandoned, the stretched rubber band snapping to its remembered form, the politician's careful step back from a pledge—a quiet admission that every advance contains the blueprint for its own retreat.
Etymology
From Middle French resiler (compare French résilier), from Latin resiliō (“spring back”), from re- (“back”) + saliō (“to jump”).
verb
- To start back; to recoil; to recede from a purpose.“I once described this rather vulgarly as a Euro-wanking make-work project and I do not resile from that.”
- To spring back; rebound; resume the original form or position, as an elastic body.