back
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /bæk/
ipa: [bæk]
ipa: [bak]
ipa: [-k̚]
ipa: [-ˀk]
note: Liverpool
ipa: [bax]
ipa: [bak]
ipa: [bäk]
rhymes: -æk
Forms: form: further back
form: farther back
form: furthest back
form: farthest back
Etymology: From Middle English bak, from Old English bæc, from Proto-West Germanic *bak, from Proto-Germanic *baką, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to bend”). The adverb represents an aphetic form of aback.
Compare Middle Low German bak (“back”), from Old Saxon bak, and West Frisian bekling (“chair back”), Old High German bah, Swedish and Norwegian bak. Cognate with German Bache (“sow [adult female hog]”).
Senses: examples: text: He gave back the money.
text: I left my mobile phone back at the hotel. I’ll have to go back and get it.
text: We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.
ref: 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:
glosses: To or in a previous condition or place.
examples: text: Someone pushed me in the chest and I fell back.
text: The grandfather clock toppled back and crashed to the ground.
text: Her arm was bent back at an odd angle.
glosses: In a direction opposite to that in which someone or something is facing or normally pointing.
examples: text: Wind the film back a few frames.
text: Don’t forget to put the clocks back by one hour tonight!
text: This mishap has set the project back considerably.
glosses: In a direction opposite to the usual or desired direction of movement or progress, physically or figuratively.
examples: text: These records go back years.
text: He built a time machine and travelled back to 1800.
text: Think back to how you felt last year.
text: Everything was simpler back in the old days.
glosses: Towards, into or in the past.
examples: text: Keep back! It could explode at any moment!
glosses: Away from someone or something; at a distance.
examples: text: Sit all the way back in your chair.
text: Step back from the curb.
text: Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path[…]. It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights. 'Twas the house I'd seen the roof of from the beach.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: Away from the front or from an edge.
examples: text: This tree is dying back.
text: Clear back all this vegetation.
text: Draw back the curtains and let in some light.
glosses: So as to shrink, recede or move aside, or cause to do so.
examples: text: Fear held him back.
glosses: In a manner that impedes.
examples: text: If you hurt me, I’ll hurt you back.
text: The light bounces back off the mirror.
text: I was at Park Safari Africa in Canada on the Canadian border. This was years ago outside of Plattsburgh, New York. And I had a new car at the time, and I was driving through, going through the monkey area. And they said 'beware of the monkeys.' So about ten of them circled my car. And this one special one, like he was the leader of the pack, jumped up on the hood and came right up to the windshield and looked in. So I was like making faces at him. [garbled] 'don't do that!' And believe it or not, he made like a face back. He jumped off the car. He took his fingernails and he peeled all the chrome on both sides of my car off. Picked it up, jumped on the hood, dropped it and left- looked at me and left.
ref: 2006 May 9, Penn Jillette, Michael Goudeau, quoting Pat, 34:52 from the start, in Penn Radio:
glosses: In a reciprocal manner; in return.
examples: text: We met many years back.
text: I last saw him a day or two back.
text: Our road was chiefly through woods, and part of it lay through the Hurricane-track, that is where a strong wind, some years back, opened a passage through the woods for a mile in breadth...
ref: 1822, John Woods, Two Years' Residence in the Settlement on the English Prairie, in the Illinois Country, United States, page 138:
glosses: Earlier, ago.
examples: text: The meeting has been moved back an hour. It was at 3 o’clock; now it's at 4 o’clock.
glosses: To a later point in time. See also put back.
Derived terms: spring forward, fall back