backward and forward
Idioms-
Also, backwards and forwards.
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Same as back and forth .
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Thoroughly, completely, as in He read the speech over and over, until he knew it backwards and forwards . [Late 1500s]
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.
In the book he emphasizes that the readiness is all, learning his lines backward and forward before the first rehearsal.
From Los Angeles Times
Every renaissance is Janus-faced, he notes, looking “backward and forward at the same time.”
Didion’s grief ripples backward and forward as she struggles to make sense of time.
From Los Angeles Times
So in 1991, he had an idea when David Rensin and Bill Zehme published the “The Bob Book,” which Pool described as a paperback that aimed to explore the “name Bob backward and forward.”
From Los Angeles Times
Event organizers moved a shuttle bus backward and forward in front of the protesters to attempt to block the sound of their loudspeaker.
From Los Angeles Times
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.