go back


verb(intr, adverb)
  1. to return

  2. (often foll by to) to originate (in): the links with France go back to the Norman Conquest

  1. (foll by on) to change one's mind about; repudiate (esp in the phrase go back on one's word)

  2. (of clocks and watches) to be set to an earlier time, as during British Summer Time: when do the clocks go back this year?

Words Nearby go back

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

How to use go back in a sentence

  • At the present time, certainly, no thought has ever occurred to Germans that they would not go back to a gold basis.

    Readings in Money and Banking | Chester Arthur Phillips
  • Squinty started to go back the way he had come, but I guess you can imagine what happened.

    Squinty the Comical Pig | Richard Barnum
  • "In the morning I shall go back to the boy who taught me tricks," thought Squinty.

    Squinty the Comical Pig | Richard Barnum
  • Let us go back to the capital, and the responsibility shall fall on my shoulders alone.'

    Our Little Korean Cousin | H. Lee M. Pike
  • Malcolm asked her gently to go back to the helm and keep it jammed hard-a-starboard until they arrived at the left bank.

    The Red Year | Louis Tracy

Other Idioms and Phrases with go back

go back

Return, retrace one's steps; also, return to a former condition. For example, I'm going back to the haunts of my youth, or We want to go back to the old way of doing things. [First half of 1500s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.