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Synonyms

back out

British  

verb

  1. to withdraw (from an agreement, etc)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
back out Idioms  

  1. Move or retreat backwards without turning; same as back away , def. 1.

  2. Also, back out of something . Withdraw from a situation, or break an agreement or engagement. For example, After the announcement appeared in the papers, Mary found it doubly difficult to back out of her engagement to Todd . [Early 1800s] Also see go back on .

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.

Despite this, Harris couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, so she tried to back out of the lease.

From BBC

Max flipped it back out to me as Sadie was finishing with the last of her customers and the people coming in for the midnight movies began to snag their seats.

From Literature

“This was her idea, wasn’t it? Never mind that you’re backing out on your promise to me and Jonah.”

From Literature

His promoter, Frank Warren, said the Chatham heavyweight will be back out in July.

From BBC

The jury instead found that certain of his public claims of problems in Twitter's user metrics, and that he was possibly backing out of the $44bn acquisition deal, were intentionally misleading.

From BBC

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.