fall back

British  

verb

1. to recede or retreat

2. to have recourse (to)

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noun

1. a retreat

2. a reserve, esp money, that can be called upon in need

3. 1. anything to which one can have recourse as a second choice

   2. ( as modifier )

      a fall-back position

fall back Idioms  

1. Give ground, retreat, as in The troops fell back before the relentless enemy assault , or He stuck to his argument, refusing to fall back . [c. 1600]

2. Recede, as in The waves fell back from the shore . [c. 1800]

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Example Sentences

Both horses reared and liked to fall back on Lloyd and Dad.

From Literature

“Brightwood, do you hear me? My god, do you hear me? I need to tell the Forty-Eighth to fall back, immediately, or men are going to die.”

From Literature

Oil prices rose initially but then fell back after news that a Pakistani tanker had transited the Strait of Hormuz.

From Barron's

Last October and November recorded four and six closes, respectively, above $20 before falling back into teenager status.

From Barron's

In his model, some of the exploded material falls back toward the magnetar and forms a tilted accretion disk.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• recede
• withdraw