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Synonyms for backing down

Grammar : Verb
Spell : bak
Phonetic Transcription : bæk

Top 10 synonyms for backing down
Other synonyms for the word backing down

Définition of backing down

Origin :
  • Old English bæc "back," from Proto-Germanic *bakam (cf. Old Saxon and Middle Dutch bak, Old Frisian bek), with no known connections outside Germanic.
  • The cognates mostly have been ousted in this sense in other modern Germanic languages by words akin to Modern English ridge (cf. Danish ryg, German Rücken). Many Indo-European languages show signs of once having distinguished the horizontal back of an animal (or a mountain range) from the upright back of a human. In other cases, a modern word for "back" may come from a word related to "spine" (Italian schiena, Russian spina) or "shoulder, shoulder blade" (Spanish espalda, Polish plecy).
  • To turn (one's) back on (someone or something) "ignore" is from early 14c. Behind (someone's) back "clandestinely" is from late 14c.
  • To know (something) like the back of one's hand, implying familiarity, is first attested 1893. The first attested use of the phrase is from a dismissive speech made to a character in Robert Louis Stevenson's "Catriona":
  • If I durst speak to herself, you may be certain I would never dream of trusting it to you; because I know you like the back of my hand, and all your blustering talk is that much wind to me.
  • The story, a sequel to "Kidnapped," has a Scottish setting and context, and the back of my hand to you was noted in the late 19th century as a Scottish expression meaning "I will have nothing to do with you" [e.g. "Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language"]. In English generally, the back of (one's) hand has been used to imply contempt and rejection since at least 1300. Perhaps the connection of a menacing dismissal is what made Stevenson choose that particular anatomical reference.
  • verb back off
Example sentences :
  • I know he was disappointed when the colonel was so quick in backing down.
  • Extract from : « A Waif of the Mountains » by Edward S. Ellis
  • Again and again it reared, backing down towards the edge of the cliff.
  • Extract from : « The Heir of Kilfinnan » by W.H.G. Kingston
  • Whom it won't be my interest, at the same time, to worry into backing down.
  • Extract from : « The Outcry » by Henry James
  • They let it be known that there would be no backing down on these five points.
  • Extract from : « The Jesuits, 1534-1921 » by Thomas J. Campbell
  • She'll try to wheedle you into backing down from this position.
  • Extract from : « The Naturewoman » by Upton Sinclair
  • There was no backing down now; she was going to have it out with him.
  • Extract from : « America First » by Frances Nimmo Greene
  • I asked, as he shut off after backing down to the round-house.
  • Extract from : « The Nerve of Foley » by Frank H. Spearman
  • "I want my wife," exclaimed the Jew, backing down the stairs.
  • Extract from : « McTeague » by Frank Norris
  • Thinking that he was backing down, they had all begun grinning at him.
  • Extract from : « Null-ABC » by Henry Beam Piper and John Joseph McGuire
  • At that moment he discovered the engine, with the forward part of the train, backing down the railroad.
  • Extract from : « The Young Lieutenant » by Oliver Optic

Antonyms for backing down

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019