back to back

adverb

1. (of two similar events) following one immediately after the other; in unbroken sequence; consecutively.

   After losing all day, he picked winners back to back in the last two races.

adjective

1. adjacent or contiguous but oppositely oriented; having the backs close together or adjoining.

   The seats in the day coach are back to back.

2. Stud Poker.,  (of a pair) consisting of the hole card and the first upcard.

   He had aces back to back.

back-to-back

adjective

1. facing in opposite directions, often with the backs touching

2. (of urban houses) built so that their backs are joined or separated only by a narrow alley

3. informal,  consecutive

4. commerce

   1. denoting a credit arrangement in which a finance house acts as an intermediary to conceal the identity of the seller from the buyer

   2. denoting a loan from one company to another in a different country using a finance house to provide the loan but not the funding

noun

1. a house or terrace built in back-to-back style

Word History and Origins

Origin of back to back¹

First recorded in 1450–1500

Idioms and Phrases

With backs close together or touching, as in In the first and second rows of the bus, the seats were back to back, an unusual arrangement . This term also can be applied to persons who stand facing in opposite directions and with their backs touching. [Mid-1800s]

Consecutively, one after another, as in I'm exhausted; I had three meetings back to back . [Mid-1900s]

Example Sentences

Sasaki had to grind to get through the eighth, leaving two runners stranded by retiring Bo Bichette and Daulton Varsho back to back.

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Should that happen, Messi will become the first player in the 30-season history of the MLS to win it back to back.

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Deere hasn’t posted back to back weekly gains since early May and produced a bearish death cross, but remember that tends to happen after most of the technical damage has already been done.

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Sonnier continues: “The driven car hit the unmanned car going much too fast at the wrong angle, and the guide wire broke. The unmanned car went out of control and went barreling toward the shipping container. As Brandon and I proceeded to run, the car hit the shipping container, which knocked me and Margolis down. It went on my leg. We were both pinned, back to back, for about 20 minutes.”

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It just so happens that, concurrent to my watching all eight episodes of Netflix‘s new miniseries, “Wayward,” twice — back to back, and with obsessive interest — I’ve been reading Melissa Broder’s 2018 novel, “The Pisces,” about a lady finding herself in love with a man who is half fish.

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Related Words

• later