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back

noun

1 they think she's broken her back:

spine, backbone, spinal column, vertebral column;

technical dorsum, rachis.

2 the back of the house:

rear, rear side, other side;

Nautical stern.

▷antonyms front.

3 the back of the queue:

end, tail end, rear end, tail, far end;

North American tag end.

▷antonyms front, head.

4 the back of a postcard:

reverse, reverse side, other side, underside;

verso;

informal flip side.

▷antonyms front, face.

□ behind someone's back

secretly, without someone's knowledge, on the sly, deceitfully, slyly, sneakily, covertly, surreptitiously, furtively.

□ get someone's back up (also put someone's back up)

the quip immediately got his back up:

annoy, irritate, vex, make angry, make cross, anger, exasperate, irk, gall, pique, put out, displease, antagonize, get on someone's nerves, rub up the wrong way, ruffle, ruffle someone's feathers, make someone's hackles rise, raise someone's hackles;

enrage, infuriate, madden, make someone's blood boil, drive to distraction, goad, provoke;

informal aggravate, peeve, hassle, miff, rile, nettle, needle, get, get to, bug, hack off, get under someone's skin, get in someone's hair, get someone's goat, rattle someone's cage, drive mad/crazy, drive round the bend/twist, drive up the wall, make someone see red;

British, informal wind up, nark, get across, get on someone's wick, get up someone's nose, put someone's nose out of joint, give someone the hump;

North American, informal tee off, tick off, burn up, rankle, ride, gravel;

vulgar slang piss off;

British, vulgar slang get on someone's tits;

informal , dated give someone the pip, get someone's dander up;

rare exacerbate, hump, rasp.

▷antonyms please, gratify.

□ the back of beyond

the middle of nowhere, the backwoods, the wilds, the hinterland, a backwater;

Australian, New Zealand the back country, the backblocks, the booay;

South African the backveld, the platteland;

North American, informal the boondocks, the boonies, the tall timbers;

Australian, New Zealand, informal Woop Woop, beyond the black stump.

□ turn one's back on

in 1973, she turned her back on her career:

abandon, give up, have done with, throw up;

reject, renounce, repudiate;

informal quit, pack in, jack in.

□ off the back of

British

I got the job off the back of a documentary that I made:

following, after, in the wake of, at a time of;

because of, owing to, due to, as a consequence of, thanks to, through, by reason of, by/in virtue of, on grounds of, in view of.

adverb

1 she walked away without looking back | he pushed his chair back:

backwards, behind one, to one's rear, rearwards;

away, off.

▷antonyms forward.

2 keep back from the roadside:

away, at a distance.

3 her husband left her a few months back:

ago, earlier, previously, before, in the past.

verb

1 the project was backed by the English Tourist Board:

sponsor, finance, put up the money for, fund, subsidize, underwrite, promote, lend one's name to, be a patron of, act as guarantor of, support;

informal foot the bill for, pick up the tab for;

North American, informal bankroll, stake.

2 over 97 per cent backed the changes:

support, endorse, sanction, approve of, give one's blessing to, smile on, favour, advocate, promote, uphold, champion;

vote for, ally oneself with, stand behind, side with, be on the side of, defend, take up the cudgels for;

second;

informal throw one's weight behind.

▷antonyms oppose.

3 he backed the horse at 33–1:

bet on, place a bet on, gamble on, stake money on.

4 he backed slowly out of the garage:

reverse, move/drive backwards;

backtrack, retrace one's steps.

▷antonyms move forwards, advance.

□ back away

he took a step towards her and she hurriedly backed away:

draw back, step back, move away, back off, retreat, withdraw, pull back, give ground;

shrink back, blench, cower, quail, quake.

▷antonyms move forward.

□ back down

the government backed down under pressure from the House of Lords:

give in, concede defeat, surrender, yield, submit, climb down, concede, reconsider;

backtrack, back-pedal.

□ back out

Coleman backed out of the deal:

renege on, go back on, withdraw from, pull out of, retreat from, fail to honour, abandon, default on, repudiate;

back-pedal;

informal get cold feet about, chicken out of.

□ back something up

his statement was backed up by evidence from Mr Eric Bartlett:

substantiate, corroborate, confirm, support, bear out, endorse, bolster, reinforce, lend weight to;

prove, verify, validate.

▷antonyms contradict, undermine.

□ back someone up

her husband's bound to back her up:

support, stand by, give one's support to, side with, be on someone's side, take someone's side, take someone's part;

vouch for;

help, assist, aid.

adjective

1 the back garden:

rear.

▷antonyms front.

2 the back row:

end, hind, hindmost, rearmost.

▷antonyms front.

3 the bird's back feathers:

dorsal, posterior.

▷antonyms front.

4 back copies of the journal:

past, old, previous, earlier, former, out of date.

▷antonyms future.

word links	back
dorsal, lumbar relating to the back supine lying on one's back posterior further back

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