back of

1. Also, at the back of; in back of. Behind; also, supporting. For example, The special brands were stored back of the counter, or “Franklin stood back of me in everything I wanted to do” (Eleanor Roosevelt, quoted by Catherine Drinker Bowen, Atlantic Monthly, March 1970). The first term, dating from the late 1600s, was long criticized as an undesirable colloquialism but today is generally considered acceptable. The variants, at the back of, from about 1400, and in back of, from the early 1900s, also can be used both literally and figuratively and could be substituted for back of in either example. Also see back of beyond.

Example Sentences

Ohtani's entered the game at the Dodger Stadium on the back of an eight-game home run drought, but led from the front as he struck out three batters in the opening frame.

Read more on BBC

"I just never found any part of my running easy last year and that was the one thing I always relied on to get myself out of trouble in races. It took me longer than I thought to recover off the back of that Olympic race," she said.

Read more on BBC

The next minute — literally — he was slugging through the bottom of the first by driving a ball 446 feet into the back of the right-field pavilion.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Proctor fired two fatal shots into the back of Brendon Glenn, 29, after a dispute with a bouncer outside a bar near the Venice Speedway in May 2015.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The drivers: a growing economy, which increases loan volumes; a pickup in corporate transactions; and rising trading revenue on the back of rising markets.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• backward