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Synonyms

pull back

British  

verb

  1. to return or be returned to a rearward position by pulling

    the army pulled 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

noun

  1. the act of pulling back

  2. a device for restraining the motion of a mechanism, etc, or for returning it to its original position

"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
pull back Idioms  

  1. Retreat, as in The troops gradually pulled back. [Mid-1500s]

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.

“Families who depend on petroleum products to commute to jobs and school and to heat their homes may need to pull back on more discretionary forms of spending,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026

“We will experiment, invest disproportionately behind what matters and pull back when something isn’t working.”

From MarketWatch • Apr. 9, 2026

To pull back from that, I think, would upend decades of settled practice and be a real step back for our collective understanding of the presidency.

From Slate • Apr. 9, 2026

Last year, he steered more than $100 billion of M&A deals, and he has no plans to pull back as chair.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 6, 2026

I start to pull back, but he holds my hand for a moment as he stares out at the road.

From "Pride" by Ibi Zoboi

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.