backtrack
Americanverb (used without object)
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to return over the same course or route.
-
to withdraw from an undertaking, position, etc.; reverse a policy.
verb
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to return by the same route by which one has come
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to retract or reverse one's opinion, action, policy, etc
Other Word Forms
- backtracking noun
Etymology
Origin of backtrack
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A month later, Kennedy backtracked on these remarks, saying “The causative association between Tylenol given in pregnancy … is not sufficient to say it definitely caused autism, but it is very suggestive.”
From Salon
You have this breakup, and now she’s sort of backtracking like Elon Musk did.
From Salon
One of the complaints of Labour MPs about the welfare proposals on which the government was forced to backtrack earlier this year was that they were sprung on them without enough groundwork having been laid.
From BBC
Over the past year, the government has been forced to backtrack on some of its policies - including cuts to welfare and the winter fuel payment - after objections from its own MPs.
From BBC
Colombia's leftist president backtracked on a threat to cut decades-old intelligence ties with the United States Thursday, a move the country's ex-spy chiefs had dubbed "unthinkable" and "absurd."
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
