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Back up   /bæk əp/   Listen
verb
Back  v. t.  (past & past part. backed; pres. part. backing)  
1.
To get upon the back of; to mount. "I will back him (a horse) straight."
2.
To place or seat upon the back. (R.) "Great Jupiter, upon his eagle backed, Appeared to me."
3.
To drive or force backward; to cause to retreat or recede; as, to back oxen.
4.
To make a back for; to furnish with a back; as, to back books.
5.
To adjoin behind; to be at the back of. "A garden... with a vineyard backed." "The chalk cliffs which back the beach."
6.
To write upon the back of; as, to back a letter; to indorse; as, to back a note or legal document.
7.
To support; to maintain; to second or strengthen by aid or influence; as, to back a friend. "The Parliament would be backed by the people." "Have still found it necessary to back and fortify their laws with rewards and punishments." "The mate backed the captain manfully."
8.
To bet on the success of; as, to back a race horse.
To back an anchor (Naut.), to lay down a small anchor ahead of a large one, the cable of the small one being fastened to the crown of the large one.
To back the field, in horse racing, to bet against a particular horse or horses, that some one of all the other horses, collectively designated "the field", will win.
To back the oars, to row backward with the oars.
To back a rope, to put on a preventer.
To back the sails, to arrange them so as to cause the ship to move astern.
To back up, to support; to sustain; as, to back up one's friends.
To back a warrant (Law), is for a justice of the peace, in the county where the warrant is to be executed, to sign or indorse a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender.
To back water (Naut.), to reverse the action of the oars, paddles, or propeller, so as to force the boat or ship backward.


back up  v. t.  
1.
To serve as a backup (3) for (another person or persons); as, the patrolmen backed up the detectives as they went inside to make the arrest; the center fielder backed up the shortstop on the play.
2.
(Computers) To make a backup (5) of; as, the sysop backed up the purchasing data files every night.


back up  v. i.  
1.
To move in a reverse direction; used of vehicles or animals.
2.
To accumulate due to a blockage of flow; as, a traffic backup due to an accident; a sewage backup.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Back up" Quotes from Famous Books



... under cover of darkness, could have escaped. The stable guard could have seen nothing from his station, and just below was the hard-packed road leading to the river and the straggling town. There was nothing to trace, and Hamlin climbed back up the bluff completely baffled but desperately resolved to unlock the mystery. The harder the solution appeared, the more determined he became to solve it. As he came out, opposite the barrack entrance, a carriage drove in past the guard-house, the guard presenting arms, and circled the parade ...
— Molly McDonald - A Tale of the Old Frontier • Randall Parrish
... corruption of religion and the laws, and the enormous increase of the extent of the last-named, gave very great and frequent occasion for disputes and altercations impossible to allay. (21) When men begin to quarrel with all the ardour of superstition, and the magistracy to back up one side or the other, they can never come to a compromise, but are ...
— A Theologico-Political Treatise [Part IV] • Benedict de Spinoza
... arranged from the pianoforte score, into the cities of the West, and brought down a deal of unmerited criticism on the innocent head of M. Delibes. In the season of 1884-1885 Colonel Mapleson came back to the Academy with vouchers of various sorts to back up a promise to give the opera. There was a human voucher in the person of Miss Emma Nevada, who had also enjoyed the instruction of the composer and who had trunkfuls and trunkfuls and trunkfuls of ...
— A Second Book of Operas • Henry Edward Krehbiel
... to," she answered. "And you be bound on much the same errand, though you'd deny it if your face could back up your tongue." ...
— Merry-Garden and Other Stories • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... into the dressing-room, and it was then Banks stopped and brought out the loose change in his pockets. There was a ten dollar piece, to which he added two and a half in silver. He started back up the room, but the girl had disappeared, and, while he stood hesitating, a ...
— The Rim of the Desert • Ada Woodruff Anderson


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