The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Recourse \Re*course"\, v. i.
   1. To return; to recur. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            The flame departing and recoursing.   --Foxe.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To have recourse; to resort. [Obs.] --Bp. Hacket.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Recourse \Re*course"\ (r?*k?rs"), n. [F. recours, L. recursus a
   running back, return, fr. recurrere, recursum, to run back.
   See Recur.]
   1. A coursing back, or coursing again, along the line of a
      previous coursing; renewed course; return; retreat;
      recurence. [Obs.] "Swift recourse of flushing blood."
      --Spenser.
      [1913 Webster]

            Unto my first I will have my recourse. --Chaucer.
      [1913 Webster]

            Preventive physic . . . preventeth sickness in the
            healthy, or the recourse thereof in the
            valetudinary.                         --Sir T.
                                                  Browne.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Recurrence in difficulty, perplexity, need, or the like;
      access or application for aid; resort.
      [1913 Webster]

            Thus died this great peer, in a time of great
            recourse unto him and dependence upon him. --Sir H.
                                                  Wotton.
      [1913 Webster]

            Our last recourse is therefore to our art. --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Access; admittance. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            Give me recourse to him.              --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   Without recourse (Commerce), words sometimes added to the
      indorsement of a negotiable instrument to protect the
      indorser from liability to the indorsee and subsequent
      holders. It is a restricted indorsement.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

recourse
    n 1: act of turning to for assistance; "have recourse to the
         courts"; "an appeal to his uncle was his last resort" [syn:
         recourse, resort, refuge]
    2: something or someone turned to for assistance or security;
       "his only recourse was the police"; "took refuge in lying"
       [syn: recourse, refuge, resort]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

48 Moby Thesaurus words for "recourse":
   ability, access, admittance, agency, alternative, availability,
   backup, capacity, capital, dernier ressort, device, devices,
   disposable resources, entree, expediency, expedient, funds,
   going between, hope, instrumentality, intermediation, last resort,
   machinery, makeshift, means, mechanism, mediation, method,
   pis aller, power, recourses, refuge, remedy, reserve, resort,
   resorts, resource, resources, service, shift, stock, stopgap,
   substitute, supply, ways, ways and means, wherewith, wherewithal