Resile

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈzaɪl/

Definitions

1. To draw back or recover from a position or situation
2. To spring back or revert to a previous state or condition
3. To easily adapt or rebound in response to stress or change

Etymology: Latin "resilire" meant "to leap back" or "spring back," and it was built from "re-" ("back") and "salire" ("to jump"), the same root that gives English "salient," a projecting point that seems to leap out from a surface. The verb passed into Middle French as "resiler," and English borrowed the sense of recoiling or springing away. The word's core image is physical: something that bounces back, like a spring or a rubber ball. Over time the literal bounce faded while the sense of withdrawal took over. A party that resiles from an agreement draws back from it, and the word now carries that legal and social flavor of backing out. Its sibling "resilient," which describes recovery from a blow, grew from the same Latin source but stayed closer to the original springing motion.

Synonyms: recover, bounce back, spring back, rebound, return

Antonyms: break, fail, collapse, succumb, yield