to-and-fro

[ too-uhn-froh ]
See synonyms for to-and-fro on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. back-and-forth: to-and-fro motion.

noun,plural to-and-fros.
  1. a continuous or regular movement backward and forward; an alternating movement, flux, flow, etc.: the to-and-fro of the surf.

Origin of to-and-fro

1
First recorded in 1820–30; adj. and noun use of adv. phrase to and (fro) (def. 2)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use to-and-fro in a sentence

  • There is no peace for us so long as the coil is kept revolving; we are kept in a constant state of rapid to-and-fro motion.

    Autobiography of an Electron | Charles R. (Charles Robert) Gibson

British Dictionary definitions for to and fro

to and fro

adjective, adverbto-and-fro
  1. back and forth

  2. here and there

Derived forms of to and fro

  • toing and froing, noun

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

Other Idioms and Phrases with to-and-fro

to-and-fro

Back and forth, as in He was like a caged animal, pacing to and fro. Strictly speaking, to means “toward” and fro “away from,” but this idiom is used more vaguely in the sense of “moving alternately in different directions.” [First half of 1300s]

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