Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

hark back

British  

verb

  1. (intr, adverb) to return to an earlier subject, point, or position, as in speech or thought

"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
hark back Idioms  

  1. Return to a previous point, as in Let us hark back briefly to my first statement. This expression originally alluded to hounds retracing their course when they have lost their quarry's scent. It may be dying out. [First half of 1800s]

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.

The commuters in “Le Métro” hark back to his early streetcar scenes but now there’s an air of mystery to the straphangers, with the central figure’s face obscured and bisected by a subway pole.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 10, 2025

People loved the vintage look of the pink toilets, which hark back to a time when bathrooms — whole houses, really — weren’t quite so bland and boring.

From Los Angeles Times • May 15, 2025

When built, it was intended as a "hark back to the history of bathing machines in Margate", which were used frequently in the town during Victorian times.

From BBC • Feb. 19, 2025

They want to hark back to the EU’s timid origins some 60 years ago when cooperation was much more voluntary and limited.

From Seattle Times • May 8, 2024

Sometimes in public, hearing a stranger, I’d hark back to my past.

From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez

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.