Lexic.us

Definition of Back down

1. Verb. Move backwards from a certain position. "The bully had to back down"

2. Verb. Remove oneself from an obligation. "He bowed out when he heard how much work was involved"

Definition of Back down

1. Verb. (idiomatic) To take a less aggressive position in a conflict than one previously has or has planned to. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Back Down

back brace back breaker back burner back burners back catalogue back channel back circle back country back cover back crawl

back cross back crosses back doors back double biceps back down (current term) back ends back entrance back exercise back feet back fire

back fires back five back focal length back focal plane back foot back foot shot back foot shots back formation

Literary usage of Back down

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital by John Beauchamp Jones (1866)
"... but it was countermanded, and the troops now (9 AM) are marching back, down Main Street. I have not learned what occasioned all this. ..."

2. The Life and Travels of General Grant by Joel Tyler Headley (1879)
"... MADE MAJOR-GENERAL— HALLECK'S SHAMEFUL PERSECUTION AND FALSEHOOD—is COMPELLED TO back down—GRANT GIVEN HIS OLD COMMAND—THE ARMY AT PITTSBURGH LANDING. ..."

3. American State Trials: A Collection of the Important and Interesting by John Davison Lawson, Robert Lorenzo Howard (1918)
"He was a peg- legged fellow, real dark; next I saw this negro and Mr. Hollo- way coming back down the steps. Mr. Darley came down and left, Mr. Holloway ..."

4. Notes of a Voyage to California Via Cape Horn: Together with Scenes in El by Samuel Curtis Upham (1878)
"Leave Panama—To Cruces on mule back—Down the Chagres River in a bungo—Deaths by cholera en route—Mr. and Mrs. Gillingham—Go on board the steamship Falcon— ..."

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