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Use back-against-the-wall in a sentence

Definition of back against the wall:

  • (noun) A very difficult situation with no beneficial options available for action.

Sentence Examples:

She shrank back against the wall, needlessly.

He scrambled to his feet, and then crouched back against the wall eyeing me like a trapped weasel.

Lester, who was sitting next to him, took the sleeping man by the arm and shook him, gently at first and then with some roughness; but White, with his back against the wall and his head bowed, made no sign.

I just flattened back against the wall, kneeling as I was, too stupid and dazed even to run.

He reeled back against the wall, sputtering the blood from his split mouth.

Indian into the middle of the room; she then pushed the door back against the wall and set a chair against it.

I leaned back against the wall and looked at the pool of blood near the kiosk where the man had been.

The carriage passed so near that I was obliged to press back against the wall to save my feet from the wheels, and a figure on the back seat, who, for the moment, was within arm's reach, I recognized as Francis Joseph.

They stood back against the wall, flattening themselves, and they stared, fascinated, at the slender stranger.

He was too terrified to shriek, but fell back against the wall of the barn, gasping.

He leaned back against the wall, clenching his fists tightly.

She raised her arm and struck him across the face so that, with a little moan, he staggered back against the wall.

The doctor staggered back against the wall, his face working in a sudden convulsion.

The words were shouted at him savagely, and then she leaned back against the wall in a paroxysm of horrible laughter.

Leaning back against the wall, Max surveyed the scene, fascinated and confused.

He drew back against the wall, curling himself up with supple agility, and smiled into his companion's eyes.

He would put his back against the wall, his feet against the bookcase, and thus he would travel upward to the top.

The assailant pulled his blade free and darted back against the wall to face the two of us.

All that she knew was, that she wanted to put her back against the wall, or get into an angle, like a cornered animal, and use her teeth and claws against Valentine, that menacing figure with an angel's face.

He sank back against the wall, the picture of dejection.

She said with her back against the wall: "Do you think it very amazing that I should care for you?"

She groaned, staggering back against the wall, and putting her hand over her eyes.

Pushed back against the wall the trestle is then "as good as a boy."

He wondered again, lounging back against the wall, about the French forts, outposts in a vast wilderness.

As she sat down, she drooped her head back against the wall; and a gray look spread about her lips.

I noticed that the window was fitted with shutters on the outside fastened back against the wall.

He rose to his feet, staggered back against the wall, his eyes starting from their sockets.

Manners staggered back against the wall as though he had been smitten by some invisible hand.

A stroke of his fist sent the freedman reeling back against the wall, all the wind pounded from his chest.

With a short pipe between his teeth, he reclined in a wooden chair, which was tipped back against the wall.

Balder was hurled back against the wall, a shock like the touch of death in every nerve.

The two men went down with a crash athwart the sill, and the door slammed back against the wall.

The waiter, who had retired to the semi-seclusion of the kitchen, dozed in a chair tilted back against the wall.

Besides this was really their work, though it did not look like very strenuous labor, for most of them were standing in little groups, talking and smoking, or sitting in chairs tilted back against the wall.

Fear, that hideous divinity, has caused the family to add sheet-iron doors on the garden side and on the courtyard side, which are folded back against the walls in the daytime, and are closed at night.

The little dancer reeled back against the wall, panting desperately.

The man leaned back against the wall, his face expressionless.

She had fallen back against the wall of the cabin and was gazing about her with a strange and startled expression.

Eloise staggered to her feet, shrinking back against the wall of the shack, her eyes on his face.

I could scarcely have retreated had I wished to do so, though I realized instantly who it was, and drew back against the wall, so that she came down, singing lightly to herself, without noticing my presence until we were face to face.

I staggered back against the wall, and my own pistol was knocked from my grasp.

There he stood, his back against the wall, with the bodies of the Mexicans he had slain lying in a semicircle about him.

He clambered inside and sat with his back against the wall, intending to get out again after the shower should pass.

Val flattened back against the wall.

We were standing back against the wall of the superstructure.

She was stricken with horror; she shrank back against the wall, huddled in her cloak.

Old Gideon took no notice, for leaning back against the wall he was softly snoring.

One more shake I gave, and threw him off, so that he staggered back against the wall.

The cashier sagged back against the wall and slowly slid to the floor.

He pulled himself back against the wall of the saucer.

The secretary had also risen, and now shrank back against the wall, her hand at her mouth stifling a scream.

This girl would keep her promise, of that he was well assured, but if her high-strung temperament was subjected to undue force she would put her back against the wall and defy law and convention alike.

I put a slug in his middle that slammed him back against the wall.

He felt her relax obediently; and slipping one arm under her shoulder, the other under her knees, he lifted a burden which proved to be light, from the upper berth, to bestow it in safety, far back against the wall in the bunk underneath.

Drew got his hands on it, pulled it back against the wall as the sentry returned.

Jay staggered back against the wall, then collapsed to the floor.

The helmet was knocked from his head and he staggered back against the wall.

And next moment Charlie received a blow full on the chest, which sent him staggering back against the wall.

It was soon put to rights, and, leaning his back against the wall, he began to tickle the strings gently.

In a few minutes he reached the front seats, and, leaning his back against the wall, as if he were watching the performers, he gradually edged himself into the dark corner where the side curtain shut off the orchestra from the public.

Cutting him off from the travelling-road, these boys pushed him, in spite of his opposition and protests, into a far corner of the chamber, where, with his back against the wall, he made a stand and demanded what they wanted of him.

He sat on the floor with his back against the wall, his head drooping.

Holmes crouched back against the wall and I did the same, my hand closing upon the handle of my revolver.

Molly, raising her hands to her head, falls back against the wall nearest to her, unutterable horror in her face.

She was not quite pleased, and as she leaned her head back against the wall he saw her pouting lips in the moonlight.

Followed by Digger, he walked quietly toward the next cave on the left, slipped through the doorway, and, standing with his back against the wall, swung the light of his torch in a wide, swift arc about the room.

Then suddenly it gave way and Aunt Jen staggered back against the wall, swept away by the energy of her own effort.

He fell back against the wall, and she passed on and up the stairway, leaving him leaning there in dismay, his jaw lax.

Ferdinand should drop the menu and crouch back against the wall in a hunched position expressive of alarm.

Paul left the cleft, and sat down on a doubled blanket with his back against the wall.

Estella shrank back against the wall, humiliated and baffled.

She shrunk back against the wall of the alcove, but he made no movement.

It was only for an instant, for a second thrill passed through the house, the pictures clattered back against the wall, the door of the end room closed violently on its strange revelation, and my own door swung back also.

His hold relaxed, and he staggered back against the wall.

Then she rolled up her eyes and fell limply back against the wall.

Of one accord they shoved the trestles back against the wall and kicked the boxes underneath.

She shrank back against the wall quickly, in womanly fear of a strange man. "No, thank you!"

As the soldiers left the supper-room, the boys' mother had hastily removed two plates from the places and set two chairs back against the wall; she made the rest fill up the spaces, so that there was nothing to show that the two men had been there.

He exclaimed, clasping her arm, while Godwin leaned back against the wall of the cave.

She lurched to the French window that, thrown back against the wall, opened onto the little garden.

She ain't a fighter, and she sits back against the wall staring at us dead pan with big expressionless eyes.

Frank sat down, with his back against the wall of the station and laughed hysterically.

There are somber carved wood chairs set back against the wall.

The stranger refilled his pipe and again leaned back against the wall in ponderous repose.

When silence came again, Thad was standing with his back against the wall, the welding arc in his hand.

When at last I was all set, I hesitated, postponed the jump and cowered back against the wall.

He crept silently back toward the door, flattened his back against the wall, and listened.

Alan had staggered back against the wall, still holding the dagger in his hand.

Then he crouched on the floor, his back against the wall, shaking with a terror he could hardly have imagined before.

Then, with a gasp, he flattened his body back against the wall of the dome building.

In my petulance I flung the door back against the wall.

Then she was swung about deftly and irresistibly, held pinned back against the wall, still unable to move her arms.

He said, with his somber air, setting his back against the wall.

Then he fell back against the wall, amazed at his own daring, and waited with tightly-clenched fists for an answer.

Therefore, instead of pursuing his nymph, he leaned back against the wall and pondered.

Dan leaned back against the wall, glowering at Carl and Jean.

With his back against the wall, seated on a rude bench outside the cabin, he watched the heavy-eyed sun arise and yawn.

Instead of replying, the man leaned back against the wall of the hut and looked at his interlocutor in silence.

Staggering over to a bunk, Alan sagged back against the wall.

A few days previously an Indian of some rank stood with folded arms, his back against the wall, in that very tent.