to-and-fro
back-and-forth: to-and-fro motion.
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
1Words Nearby to-and-fro
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use to-and-fro in a sentence
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.
The Empty House And Other Ghost Stories | Algernon BlackwoodHe called, groaned, hissed that name, while his to-and-fro ranging quickened to a trot.
The Lord of the Sea | M. P. ShielA 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.
Birth of a Reformation | Andrew ByersWhen we make a rapid to-and-fro motion we send out great waves in the æther.
Autobiography of an Electron | Charles R. (Charles Robert) Gibson
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
back and forth
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
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.
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