[Aphetic for ABACK, OE. on bæc = into or in the rear. Not found bef. 14th c.; formerly with comparative backer, occas. backermore.]
I. In a direction to the rear.
1. lit. In the direction of one’s back, or the back of any object in question; toward the rear; away from a forward position. Often with the vb. (go, come, etc.) omitted, esp. in the imperative. Back with: move back with, take or draw back.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 7525. Ga, Neyder forth ne ȝeit on back.
1460. Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 55. With that a-noon I went me bakkermore.
1549. Latimer, Ploughers, 17. No man ye loketh bakke.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 158. The bore shall backe first.
1590. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc., 9. Backe with that leg, Perceuall.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., II. xxxiv. Back, beardless boy! Back, minion!
1851. H. Stephens, Bk. of Farm, 691. Language to horses … To step backward—Back is the only word I can remember to have heard for this motion.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, viii. § 378. This current which baffled and beat back this fleet.
2. Away from what is treated as the front; from the actual or ordinary position.
c. 1500. Blowbol’s Test., in Halliwell, Nugæ Poeticæ, 12. To draw the bake fer out of their sight.
1611. Bible, Matt. xxviii. 2. The angel of the Lord rolled back the stone.
1792. Munchausen’s Trav., xiv. 4. The crowds who were about me retreated back.
1816. J. Wilson, City of Plague, I. ii. 132. A blast … Drives me back from the grave.
Mod. Try to force this bolt back.
3. Away from an engagement, promise or undertaking.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), s.v. Back, To go back from his word, Fidem violare.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 701. Harley and Foley … promised, with an air of confidence … but soon went back from their word.
Mod. I accepted his offer at once, lest he should draw back.
4. Into time past, backward in time.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 153, ¶ 2. Able to look back on Youth with Satisfaction. Ibid. (1712), ibid., No. 484, ¶ 2. If we go back to the days of Solomon.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), VI. 95. I might have gone further back than that fatal seventh.
1854. Mrs. Jameson, Bk. of Th. (1877), 123. In memory I can go back to a very early age.
II. In the reverse direction.
5. lit. In the opposite direction in space, so as to return to the place originally left. Often with vb. (go, etc.) omitted: cf. 1.
a. 1535. More, Wks., 6 (R.). To pull him back into the voluptuous brode way.
1559. Myrr. Mag., Jack Cade, x. 6. Remoued our campe, and backe to Senocke went.
c. 1590. Marlowe, Faust., v. 37. If thou deny it I will back to hell.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., II. vii. 14. I will suruay the inscriptions backe againe.
1624. T. Taylor, Two Serm., i. 21. Backe they will to Egypt in all haste.
1783. Burke, Affairs Ind., Wks. XI. 54. Send it back to Bengal for the purchase of Indian merchandise.
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos, I. 216. Back came John in rage and fury.
6. In reversal of progress, so as to return to a former condition.
1535. Coverdale, Jer. xliv. 2. They wente backe to do sacrifice and worshipe vnto straunge goddes.
1752. Johnson, Rambl., No. 204, ¶ 6. And then fall back to the common state of man.
1817. Byron, Manfred, II. ii. 78. I felt myself degraded back to them, And was all clay again.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. App. 749. The whole country fell back into heathenism.
7. In reversal of action or change of any kind, so as to restore former circumstances or relations; formerly expressed by AGAIN, which is still sometimes used, and often added.
1607. Shaks., Cor., I. i. 149. All From me do backe receiue the Flowre of all.
1692. E. Walker, Epictetus’ Mor. (1737), xv. How is that lost that is but given back?
1752. Johnson, Rambl., No. 193, ¶ 11. Three times I sent it to the printer, and three times I fetched it back.
1865. Baring-Gould, Were-wolves, v. 55. And transformed himself back again into his human shape.
1883. Gilmour, Mongols, xvii. 203. Has any one among us died … and come back to life?
b. ellipt. (= come, received, put, etc., back.) To be back = F. être de retour.
1879. W. Ward, Philos. Theism (1884), I. 386. My desire to be back comfortably in the warm house.
Mod. How long have you been back? I must have them back some day.
8. In return, requital, repayment, retaliation.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, IV. i. 29. What haue I to giue you back? Ibid. (1601), Twelfth N., IV. iii. 18. Take, and giue backe affayres, and their dispatch.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. i. With heavy penalty will it one day be required back.
1863. Kingsley, Water Bab., viii. 326. She knew they would pay her back.
Mod. Strongly tempted to answer back.
III. Of position.
9. In a position to the rear, or away from the front; at a point or distance behind.
c. 1300. in O. E. Misc., 228. He bad him stonde bac.
1473. Warkw., Chron., 22. And aftyre … it aroose north-est, and so bakkere and bakkere.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. ii. 38. My Lord, stand backe, and let the Coffin passe.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, xvi. (1884), 143. Mrs. Pendennis’s visit … which we have recorded many pages back.
Mod. The field lies back from the road. I left him back at the second milestone.
10. In a state of check to forward motion in space, to progress in condition, to production, exhibition or declaration.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Kings iv. 24. Dryue forth, and keep me not bak.
1575–6. Thynne, in Animadv., Introd. 56. There is a huge stoone tyed at my foote, whiche keepeth me backe.
1611. Bible, Num. xxiv. 11. The Lord hath kept thee back from honour.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 255. A nation … long kept back by a sterile soil and a severe climate.
Mod. To keep back dispatches, main facts, essential particulars. To shade fruit trees, so as to keep the fruit back.
11. In time past; ago. Usually following a measure of time.
1796. Southey, Lett. Spain (1799), 139. Dug up, a few years back, at Buenos Ayres.
1860. Hawthorne, Marble Faun (1879), I. viii. 86. For months back.
1869. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xi. 58. A house which, two generations back, had been ignoble.
Mod. Far back in the Middle Ages.
12. Behind in condition, behind-hand, in arrear.
1875. Chamb. Jrnl., No. 133. 66/1. A stormy Saturday often means to them a dinnerless Sunday and a week back in their rent.
IV. Phrases.
13. † Back and fore (arch. or dial.), back and forth, back and forward: backwards and forwards, to and fro.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xxiii. He would go back and fore along the foresaid rope.
1678. R. L’Estrange, Seneca’s Mor. (1685), 4. All Material Benefits are tossed back and forward, and change their Master.
1839. Anecd. & Trad. (Camd.). Young girls … dance over the candle back and forth.
1847. Le Fanu, T. O’Brien, 199. Barristers … flitted back and forward through the passages.
1884. E. P. Roe, in Harper’s Mag., Sept., 540/1. You will have all the housekeeping you want on the mountain, and I will go back and forth every day and see that all’s right.
14. Back of: back from, behind. (In U.S.)
1857. Tomes, Amer. in Japan, iii. 83. The country which stretches back of Shanghai.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., viii. 143. Another earlier designation of a more or less kindred conception lay back of it.
1875. Sears, Serm. & Songs, 287. The home lies back of the Sunday School.
