back up
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: backs up
form: backing up
form: backed up
form: backed up
Senses: examples: text: That beeping sound indicates that the truck is backing up.
text: We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine.[…]As we reached the lodge we heard the whistle, and we backed up against one side of the platform as the train pulled up at the other.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
coordinate_terms: back away
back off
stand back
glosses: To move backwards, especially for a vehicle to do so.
examples: text: Back up the car a little, you're blocking the driveway.
synonyms: reverse
glosses: To move a vehicle backwards.
examples: text: I couldn't see how to finish the project, so I backed up and tried it another way.
synonyms: back out
glosses: To undo one's actions.
examples: text: This isn't working. Let's back up and think about it.
glosses: To reconsider one's thoughts.
examples: text: Back up your documents folder before applying the update.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To copy (data) so that it can be restored if the main copy is lost.
examples: text: You should be careful. This guy is backed up by the local gang.
text: When he said I wasn't there, I told him I was, and my buddy backed me up.
text: Thank you for backing me up. I know it's not easy delivering bad news-especially to a friend-but sometimes it's the only way we can move forward and begin to heal.
ref: 2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Update on Jaal:
text: Researching and corroborating facts to put in my script is one thing, but getting sources to back up the assertions of interviewed contributors can be quite another.
ref: 2020 May 6, Tim Dunn, “The Architecture The Railways Built”, in Rail, page 76:
synonyms: back
support
glosses: To provide support or the promise of support to.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: For the non-striker to take a few steps down the pitch, in preparation to taking a run, just as the bowler bowls the ball.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: For a fielder to position himself behind the wicket (relative to a team-mate who is throwing the ball at the wicket) so as to stop the ball, and prevent overthrows.
examples: text: When I flushed the toilet, the plumbing backed up and burst.
synonyms: plug up
glosses: To halt the flow or movement of something.
raw_tags: of a blockage
examples: text: WAITRESS: Hurry up with those drinks, Lucy. We're backing up. (Grabs the drinks LUCY has poured.) What are you doing? These are regular. They all ordered large.
ref: 1995, "Oubliette" (episode of The X-Files TV series)
synonyms: fall behind
glosses: To fill up because of a backlog.
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: To run a printing press in reverse.
Derived terms: backupable
Related terms: back down
back into
back off
back out