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Definition of Back out
1. Verb. Move out of a space backwards. "He backed out of the driveway"
2. Verb. Make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity. "The aggressive investment company pulled in its horns"
Related verbs: Draw Back, Move Back, Pull Away, Pull Back, Recede, Retire, Retreat, Withdraw
Derivative terms: Withdrawal, Withdrawer, Withdrawer
Definition of Back out
1. Verb. To reverse a vehicle from a confined space. ¹
2. Verb. (idiomatic) To withdraw from something one has promised to do. ¹
3. Verb. (idiomatic computing) To undo a change. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Lexicographical Neighbors of Back Out
Literary usage of Back out
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The Electrical Review (1878)
"... key (not shown) is de[ The key acts through silken cords, which di brushes or
springs forward ; when the key i atcd they move back out of contact. ..."
2. Anecdotes, Poetry, and Incidents of the War: North and South : 1860-1865 by Frank Moore (1866)
"It was too late to back out ; so we moved on as noiselessly as cats. We looked
every moment for some one to halt us ; but, thank God, we went through ..."
3. The Library of Wit and Humor, Prose and Poetry: Selected from the Literature by Rufus Edmonds Shapley (1884)
"... stared at him for a second or two in silence ; then step- pins back out of
the room, ... back out ..."
4. The Right Hon. Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, K. G., and His Times by Alexander Charles Ewald (1881)
"... could afterwards shelter himself under any ambiguity in its language to back
out of an opinion to which that resolution irrevocably pledged him. ..."
5. A Dictionary of Spanish Proverbs by John Collins (1823)
"It alludes to interested friends, \vho, so long as they get something, are staunch,
but when hope of further advantage is lost, they back out. ..."
6. Folks from Dixie by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1898)
"Who back out ? Me back out ? I ain't nevah backed out: Mistah Taf foolin' you."
" 'T ain' me he's a-foolin'. He may be foolin' some folks, but hit ain't ..."
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