BACK DOWN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Back down

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/bæk daʊn/ Listen

verb

Back v. i.

To move or go backward; as, the horse refuses to back.

(Naut.) To change from one quarter to another by a course opposite to that of the sun; used of the wind.

(Sporting) To stand still behind another dog which has pointed; said of a dog. (Eng.)

To back and fill, to manage the sails of a ship so that the wind strikes them alternately in front and behind, in order to keep the ship in the middle of a river or channel while the current or tide carries the vessel against the wind. Hence: (Fig.) To take opposite positions alternately; to assert and deny. (Colloq.)

To back out, To back down, to retreat or withdraw from a promise, engagement, or contest; to recede. (Colloq.) "Cleon at first... was willing to go; but, finding that he (Nicias) was in earnest, he tried to back out."

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Etymology of 'Back down'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Back down" Quotes from Famous Books

... "Make him back down till he reaches these first branches. When he gets so far I'll tell you what to do." I put my arm through the coil of rope, and, slinging it snugly over my shoulder, began to climb the pine. It was the work of only a moment to reach the ...

— The Young Forester • Zane Grey

... was obvious he wasn't through yet. He hesitated, and I could see his Adam's apple travel up above the knot of his tie and back down again as he swallowed. The pink flush deepened suddenly into brilliant red and spread all ...

— Sense from Thought Divide • Mark Irvin Clifton

... game for anything. You never saw him back down, did you? Not even—but never mind. That's a thing of the past. In five seconds that little monkey was up on top of the car with the screen cloth and the rope that we always used to hang it from. I called up out of the window for ...

— Roy Blakeley's Camp on Wheels • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... sure, as you go back down the "old Lime-Kiln road," that the motto of the school will be fulfilled in the life of each of its students: "So enter that daily thou mayst become more thoughtful and more learned. So depart that daily thou mayst become more useful to thyself ...

— How To Write Special Feature Articles • Willard Grosvenor Bleyer

... for a moment, then claiming work still to be done, turned to go back down the knoll. A new thought upon him, he once more came ...

— Judith of Blue Lake Ranch • Jackson Gregory

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