Definition of Back and forth

1. Adverb. Moving from one place to another and back again. "The old man just sat on the porch and rocked back and forth all day"


Definition of Back and forth

1. Adverb. From one place to another and back again. ¹

2. Adjective. Going from one place or position to another and back again. ¹

3. Noun. The movement (of someone or something) forward followed by a return to the same position. May refer to a concept such as an emotional state or a relationship as well as a physical thing. ¹

4. Noun. (idiomatic) Negotiations or discussions between two or more parties, a dialog. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Back And Forth

back-stabbing
back-stabby
back-to-back
back-to-back connection
back-to-basics
back-to-work order
back-track
back-up
back-ups
back-water
back-waters
back alley
back alleys
back alleyway
back alleyways
back and forth (current term)
back and forths
back aperture
back at you
back away
back bacon
back beat
back beats
back biter
back biters
back blocks
back board
back boiler
back brace
back breaker

Literary usage of Back and forth

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

1. Publishers Weekly by Publishers' Board of Trade (U.S.), Book Trade Association of Philadelphia, American Book Trade Union, Am. Book Trade Association, R.R. Bowker Company (1913)
"The risk involved for the retailer in many cases is the expense for transportation back and forth of books he receives on consignment from the publisher; ..."

2. The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events by Frank Moore, Edward Everett (1868)
"You will observe from the dates that these despatches were running back and forth from Richmond and Washington to New York, and there published, ..."

3. An American Glossary by Richard Hopwood Thornton (1912)
"back and forth. To and fro. " Back and fore," OE 1653 He would go back and fore along the foresaid rope.— Urquhart's ^Rabelais.' (NED) 1846 The [revivalist ..."

4. The Beginnings of Modern Europe (1250-1450) by Ephraim Emerton (1917)
"Legates from Pope Clement VI, passing back and forth between the camps, were able to secure a truce of only three days, which King Edward characteristically ..."

5. Annual of Scientific Discovery: Or, Year-book of Facts in Science and Art by David Ames Wells, George Bliss, Samuel Kneeland, John Trowbridge, Wm Ripley Nichols, Charles R Cross (1861)
"... by the stroke of the piston back and forth. The invention consists in connecting the piston-rod and crank of nn engine l).v means of a system of ..."

6. Missionary Review of the World by James Lutzweiler (1901)
"... and presently comes in; she bows, the bow is returned by the line of little ones, a few sentences are said back and forth, and then off go the children. ..."

7. United States Supreme Court Reports by Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, United States Supreme Court (1890)
""By making the groups of springs of a single piece of coiled wire passed back and forth through the tubes and from one group to the other the groups relieve ..."

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