back
Part of speech: adj
adv
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: human-sciences
law
linguistics
nautical
phonetics
phonology
sciences
transport
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der.?
Proto-Germanic *baką
Proto-West Germanic *bak
Old English bæc
Middle English bak
English back
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]”).
Inflected forms:
form: more back
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most back
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: further back
pos: adv
tags: comparative
form: farther back
pos: adv
tags: comparative
form: furthest back
pos: adv
tags: superlative
form: farthest back
pos: adv
tags: superlative
form: backs
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: backing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: backed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: backed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: At or near the rear.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: Go in the back door of the house.
Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.
gloss: Returned or restored to a previous place or condition.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
predicative
usually
examples: He was on vacation, but now he’s back.
The office fell into chaos when you left, but now order is back.
gloss: Not current.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: I’d like to find a back issue of that magazine.
gloss: Situated away from the main or most frequented areas.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: They took a back road.
He lives out in the back country.
It's OK that the highway is jammed, because I know a back way. It's another good way to get there.
gloss: In arrears; overdue.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: They still owe three months’ back rent.
Several of the former Hotel York workers have filed with the California Labor Division to collect what they feel is owed them in the way of back overtime.
gloss: Moving or operating backward.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: back action
gloss: Pronounced with the highest part of the body of the tongue toward the back of the mouth, near the soft palate (most often describing a vowel).
pos: adj
tags: comparable
not-comparable
usually
examples: The vowel of lot has a back vowel in most dialects of England.
gloss: To or in a previous condition or place.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: He gave back the money.
I left my mobile phone back at the hotel. I’ll have to go back and get it.
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.
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.
gloss: In a direction opposite to that in which someone or something is facing or normally pointing.
pos: adv
examples: Someone pushed me in the chest and I fell back.
The grandfather clock toppled back and crashed to the ground.
Her arm was bent back at an odd angle.
gloss: In a direction opposite to the usual or desired direction of movement or progress, physically or figuratively.
pos: adv
examples: Wind the film back a few frames.
Don’t forget to put the clocks back by one hour tonight!
This mishap has set the project back considerably.
gloss: Towards, into or in the past.
pos: adv
examples: These records go back years.
He built a time machine and travelled back to 1800.
Think back to how you felt last year.
Everything was simpler back in the old days.
gloss: Away from someone or something; at a distance.
pos: adv
examples: Keep back! It could explode at any moment!
gloss: Away from the front or from an edge.
pos: adv
examples: Sit all the way back in your chair.
Step back from the curb.
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.
gloss: So as to shrink, recede or move aside, or cause to do so.
pos: adv
examples: This tree is dying back.
Clear back all this vegetation.
Draw back the curtains and let in some light.
gloss: In a manner that impedes.
pos: adv
examples: Fear held him back.
gloss: In a reciprocal manner; in return.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: If you hurt me, I’ll hurt you back.
The light bounces back off the mirror.
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.
gloss: Earlier, ago.
pos: adv
tags: postpositional
examples: We met many years back.
I last saw him a day or two back.
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...
gloss: To a later point in time. See also put back.
pos: adv
examples: The meeting has been moved back an hour. It was at 3 o’clock; now it's at 4 o’clock.
gloss: To go in the reverse direction.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The train backed into the station.
The horse refuses to back.
Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you’re run off your course again. This is a rich man’s summer ‘cottage’ […].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn’t backed more’n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn’t help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.
No sooner had a waiting locomotive backed on to its train, the vociferous 4-6-4 or 4-8-4 re-emerged from under the bridge, and the two red marker lights on the last vehicles passed, than the headlight of the electric engine hauling the following train could be seen under the bridge and the waiting queue of locomotives had moved up one.
gloss: To support.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I back you all the way.
Which horse are you backing in this race?
And Netherlands, backed by a typically noisy and colourful travelling support, started the second period in blistering fashion and could have had four goals within 10 minutes
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee backed the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022 by 17-5, despite concerns about the bill in U.S. President Joe Biden's administration and anger about the measure from Beijing.
gloss: To change direction contrary to the normal pattern; that is, to shift anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere, or clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
pos: verb
gloss: To brace the yards so that the wind presses on the front of the sail, to slow the ship.
pos: verb
gloss: To lay out a second, smaller anchor to provide additional holding power.
pos: verb
gloss: To stand still behind another dog which has pointed.
pos: verb
tags: UK
gloss: To push or force backwards.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to back oxen
The mugger backed her into a corner and demanded her wallet.
The soil seems to be very good; the creek runs through the reserve, and has a dam thrown across it, which backs the water for a very considerable distance, and enables them to irrigate a portion of their cultivation block.
gloss: To get upon the back of; to mount.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: I will back him [a horse] straight.
The horse was the grey stallion he aye rode, the very beast he had ridden for many a wager with the wild lads of the Cross Keys. No man but himself durst back it, and it had lamed many a hostler lad and broke two necks in its day.
gloss: To place or seat upon the back.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: Great Jupiter, upon his eagle backed, / Appeared to me.
gloss: To make a back for; to furnish with a back.
pos: verb
examples: to back books
gloss: To adjoin behind; to be at the back of.
pos: verb
examples: He hath a garden circummured with brick,
Whose western side is with a vineyard backed
the chalk cliffs which back the beach
So this was my future home, I thought![…]Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one’s dreams.
So we continue climbing to the saddle of the Kleine Scheidegg, where ahead there comes into view the wide expanse of the Grindelwald valley, backed by the snowy crown of the Wetterhorn.
gloss: To write upon the back of, possibly as an endorsement.
pos: verb
examples: to back a letter;  to back a note or legal document
gloss: To sign or endorse (a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender).
pos: verb
gloss: To row backward with (oars).
pos: verb
examples: to back the oars
gloss: To draw from behind the back (a knife etc.) (as also back out).
pos: verb
tags: Multicultural-London-English
transitive
examples: Sticks and Stones may break my bones
Not when I back this botty
When I back this blade, wallahi
The hearts get beat like they just saw jihadi
gloss: To carry an infant on one’s back.
pos: verb
tags: Nigeria
transitive
Antonyms: front
current
main
veer
Related words: back vowel
Derived words: back alley
back door
back room
backway
spring forward, fall back
Translations: