To retract a statement.

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1775.  I had written you, and made some complaints of you, but I will take them all back again.—Abigail Adams in ‘Familiar Letters’ (1876) 86. (N.E.D.)

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1847.  “Do you take back the word?” said the insulted youth.—California Star, Yerba Buena, March 6.

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1850.  I take it all back,—the whole of it; I rub it all out—I expunge it.—Mr. Benton of Missouri, U.S. Senate, April 12: Cong. Globe, p. 721.

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1854.  Mr. Richardson. “I take back any thing that I may have said objectionable to the gentleman.” Mr. Smith. “I am not asking the gentleman to take back anything.”—House of Repr., Jan. 18: id., p. 204.

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1885.  I ’ve disgusted you,—I see that; but I didn’t mean to. I—I take it back.—W. D. Howells, ‘The Rise of Silas Lapham,’ ch. xv. (Century Dict.)

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1860.  There is not a word in that letter that I take back tonight. There is not a sentiment in it that I disavow.—Speech of Wm. L. Yancey at Memphis, Tenn.: Richmond Enquirer, Sept. 4, p. 2/5.

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