To turn against one’s former friend or ally.
1868.
| Worse than the Cow-Boy pillagers, | |
| Are these Dobbs’ Ferry villagers | |
| A going back on Dobbs! | |
| ’Twould not be more anom’lous | |
| If Rome went back on Rom’lus. | |
W. A. Butler, ‘Dobbs his Ferry,’ Putnam’s Mag., p. 21, Jan. (N.E.D.) |
1870. The newspaper belief that Vanderbilt never “goes back on” his friends is not generally assumed as truthful by brokers.—James K. Medbery, ‘Men and Mysteries of Wall Street,’ p. 159 (Boston).
1876. A good many patrons went back on the paper this morning, as their silent protest against the swindle.—N.Y. Mail, Oct. 21 (Bartlett).
1876. [He said] that lawyers would never go back on each other.—N.Y. Tribune, Dec. 21 (Bartlett).
1882. [If any one of these witnesses] should from any cause back out, or, as the saying is, go back upon us, our case would fail.—N.Y. Herald, March 19.
