View synonyms for answer back

answer back

verb

adverb to reply rudely to (a person, esp someone in authority) when one is expected to remain silent

“‘I voted that way because Mr. Boehner asked me to’ is not a good answer back home,” Mulvaney says.

It sends no answer back to me—that my human brain can understand—but it makes me feel that perhaps there is no earth at all.

But Mollie and Bab had no megaphone at their command through which to answer back—only two frightened girl voices.

Bring me a good answer back, and before three weeks I will have purged my forest of these vagabonds that brave us to our faces.

She flashed the answer back again, and laughed, with her cheek glowing on the pillow.

She and Jack had many differences of opinion, but to-night Jack was tired and her cousin decided not to answer back.

April 24, 2024gallimaufry

[gal-uh-maw-free ]

Start each day with the Word of the Day in your inbox!

By clicking "Sign Up", you are accepting Dictionary.com Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policies.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Browse