resile

Definition

To start back; to recoil; to recede from a purpose.

Etymology

From Middle French resiler (compare French résilier), from Latin resiliō (“spring back”), from re- (“back”) + saliō (“I jump”).

Example Sentences

• "I once described this rather vulgarly as a Euro-wanking make-work project and I do not resile from that."
• "If a legitimate expectation is established, it must be unfair for the public authority to resile from giving effect to that expectation, unless the wider interests of the public require that the public authority resiles in order properly to protect those wider interests."

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