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View synonyms for to-and-fro

to-and-fro

[ too-uhn-froh ]

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.

to and fro

adjective

  1. back and forth
  2. here and there
“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


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Derived Forms

  • ˈtoing and ˈfroing, noun
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Word History and Origins

Origin of to-and-fro1

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

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]
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Example Sentences

After a few hours of to-and-fro with his commander, the squad was given permission to do what they wanted with him.

It was not difficult to fancy he saw an indistinct moving to-and-fro below him.

He called, groaned, hissed that name, while his to-and-fro ranging quickened to a trot.

A young man, member of the church, by the name of Teams stepped out in the aisle and began to yell and stamp and walk to-and-fro.

When we make a rapid to-and-fro motion we send out great waves in the æther.

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.

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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.

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