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Use back-down in a sentence

Definition of back down:

  • (verb) move backwards from a certain position; "The bully had to back down"
  • (verb) remove oneself from an obligation | to take a less aggressive position in a conflict than one previously has or has planned to.

Sentence Examples:

We sat perfectly still, and permitted the boat to drift back down the stream until we were out of sight.

Once or twice Amy looked back down the railroad track, and Grace, noticing this, in the intervals of eating chocolate, finally asked: "What is it, Amy?"

He goes back down the stairway, closing the trap-door upon himself, and the curtain is drawn upon darkness and wind.

They all shook hands, and the little party of Germans walked back down the road amid the cheers of their opponents.

You name a morning when you will walk up the west side of the swamp and then turn round and walk back down the same side again and the money is yours.

If I had liked the prospect of carrying a bag of bones on my back down the valley of the Lot, I might have taken away many very large specimens.

Asked Joe as he ran his hands across a set of tools, picking one up and putting it back down.

Part way up the steps, one of them was just backing down into the crowd, while another, called out by name, was coming up.

Eagerly, they followed to the foot of the Oak Knoll trail, where the machine had stopped and, turning around, had started back down the canyon.

We started after a rather late dinner; and ran back down the river to where we had seen the schooner and the barges the day before.

All the skins, skulls, and alcoholic specimens, and all the baggage not absolutely necessary, were sent back down the Paraguay and to New York, in charge of Harper.

I looked back down the long hill, so silent and deserted that gray morning when we were driving together, but now dark with the solid masses of marching troops.

I got Sam to give me a sack and I climbed the tree and the nearer I got to him the farther he backed down the limb.

One morning when within one day's drive of the Colorado River, as our herd was leaving the bed ground, the last guard encountered a bunch of cattle drifting back down the trail.

We rounded them up the best we could in the dark, and then I took a couple of men and came back down the trail about twenty miles to catch any drift when day dawned.

You never knew me to show the white feather, and back down, once I put my shoulder to the wheel.

He tried to run back down the hole, but he found he had not made it large enough to turn around in.

The train on reaching the city passes on some two blocks beyond the depot; then backs down.

When the train stopped to back down to the depot, I got off and took the nearest cut to my residence.

Then with a quick motion he seized her hands again, and they were off, back down the river.

In the meantime, old Queen was having a high old time up ahead, some hundred feet by then, running up the bank and back down in the draw.

He sat back down in his chair and closely watched the horrific and colorful images that danced on the wall.

These can be copied by a thin paper squeeze, and the squeeze may be mounted by pasting a card and lightly pressing the squeeze back down on it.

Ted and Gladiator had had numerous differences, and it was the bull that had backed down every time.

At that instant a daring thought came to him, and he acted upon it before he could have time to back down through cowardice.

Mary quite silently felt in her pocket at the back of her short, green frock, produced the ring, gave it to Sarah, and, still without a word, turned back down the path and walked to her nurse.

His arm about her, supporting her as she limped, he turned back down the valley, and we others followed slowly.

I straightened him, and put my coat across his face, and spurred back down the road again and over the gate.

Whereupon he circled and taxied back down the field, thankful that the soil was sun-baked and hard.

These girls depended upon him, and he was not the boy to back down before even a ghostly Unknown.

He is backed down into the ditch of scorn and contempt, but still is not willing to draw an ounce.

The kick that the Kaiser gives is transmitted from back to back down to the lowest rung of the social ladder.

"Only a dog shot, sir," he was heard to call out in answer to some officer's question, as he passed back down the line.

When Jeff's rifle was empty, he turned and spurred his horse back down the trail, followed by the bear, who kept up the chase about a mile and then disappeared in the brush.

Well, the rabbit was about to turn, and run back down the hill, up which he had just come, when he saw something white fluttering like a piece of paper.

When men become so afraid of one another's minds and of their own minds that they cannot think, they have to back down and fight.

He did not have the smallest possible chance from the day he was named for President, to be a second-rate man or to betray a nation, or to back down out of being himself.

Why, after what has passed between us, I consider it impossible that either of us should back down.

That done, he carried the elder child across the road again, and Eliza went upon her way back down the long narrow pavement, with the children at her side.

Saunders' (this to the engine-driver, half asleep in the cab), 'back down and get those empties away.'

The siding was a short one, and he knew that in backing down he must inevitably have shoved the rear end of his train out upon the main line at the lower switch.

Fellows, as I walked on up the hill toward supper, trying to work my heart back down where it belonged, I did some tall thinking.

Hilary saw it, saw Gilbert far back down the years, a small boy standing up to punishment with just that brave, nervous grin.

That was Mary V, singing at the top of her voice, and Johnny walked stiff-backed down the path.

As I manifested no signs of backing down (and I am sure my eyes were beginning to snap), he led me to the rear of the building where, in an open court, stood a tent.

This colonel wanted to make the captain who was at the head of our foremost battery back down again.

He bent over her with a curious waving motion of his old shoulders as if they bore wings of love and protection; then he crept back down-stairs.

He sat where he was until the three had ridden back down the sandy road which served as a street.

Another person added, picking up a copy of the Grudge Report and slamming it back down on the table.

If I backed down, I should be called a coward; the people who respect me now would close their doors in my face.

And then he turned and strode on after his guide, conscious that the blood was creeping up into his face and at the same time that he could not "back down."

"Do you think we ought to back down now," she demanded of Launcelot, who, with Anne, had followed her to the parlor to talk things over.

He waited till the sound of the horse's feet had died away, and then he walked back down the empty street.

Slowly the train began to back down the incline in the same direction from which it had come.

They must watch lest the fire back down into the valley again and destroy their timber, as it had destroyed Hollister's.

He stepped over the grating and shone the light back down the hole, inviting Kurt to have a look.

He dropped his hands to his sides and then stood, realized his erection was straining at his shorts, sat back down again in one of the club chairs, and crossed his legs.

Before Alan knew it, they were nearly upon him, walking back down the alley straight toward his hiding place.

Billy was already kicking it out of the way, and Link, thrown from his chest, got up on one knee and punched him hard in the kidneys, and he went back down.

Men ran back down the hill, seeking shelter from the fury of it, and I bent my head, soaked to the skin.

As they reached the head of the first draw that led back down into the valley Harris waved an arm.

He would have to back down, tell her he could not put the bargain through, invent some other scheme.

They captured a flag and a handful of prisoners only to be driven back down the hill with losses more frightful in retreat than when they breasted the storm.

She had made up her mind that at the first sign of danger she would turn Nabob and make a dash back down the trail for safety.

If you had done the same here there would have been shooting or else you'd have had to put your gun away and back down.

If you brace right up and pretend you are eager to fight with pistols, the chances are ten to one he'll back down before the word is given to fire.

"Now, Mollie, if you'll turn around, and back down as near as you can, we'll see what we can do," proposed Will.

His best chance, Ross decided, was to circle north, come back down along the bed of a stream.

Make a small, short loop in the tie wire close to the blossom to prevent its slipping back down on the wire.

He cut the rope about Jean's waist, and backing down from the ledge, took her again across his shoulder.

As I walked back down the road I came to one of the posts of the motor-machine-gunners who were there on guard.

Lovell, if you can lend me ten men, I'll take charge of the herd at once and move them back down the river about seven miles.

"The lieutenant knows that Carey's not in yet," he ventured to say, as he started back down the narrow game trail which they had climbed.

Marvelling once more at the excellence and secrecy of the plan, Willis gently pushed his boat out from among the piles and rowed back down the river to Hull.

The engine must have backed down, coupled on to the freight cars, and hauled them off while I slept.

Brown had seen the children climb into the freight car, and she may have had a glimpse of the engine backing down, coupling to the string of cars and starting off with them.

The noise was caused when the engine backed down the track, bumped into the train of freight cars and was coupled to them.

Then, in sudden panic at finding herself alone, she fled back down the willow avenue, and burst out on the broad drive in full view of the house.

He turned and wandered back down the little dark yard, looking up at the high field of the stars, with only his dim eyes.

He pushed me gently back down in the bed with hands that were as soft as a mother's, but as firm as the kind that tie bow knots in half-inch bars.

Backing down the ridge, I ran a little way to come up behind another tree, from which I soon shifted to a fallen pine.

Jones backed down a little till she crossed to another branch, then he resumed his former position.

It was drawing matters down rather fine when he was compelled to back down to where he had elbow room, and remove his coat before he could squeeze his body through that crack.

Turning, Pill came back down the aisle; as he came the half-risen congregation made way for him, curiously.

The others turned in panic and began to crowd back down the corridor, the beams stabbing at them and picking them off one by one.

They saw Reddy Fox coming back down the Lone Little Path, and he was using his legs just as well as he knew how.

She told us to apply our knowledge of sociology to the problems of our daily lives, and when we do, she backs down.

This time our feeble cry was heard; and a hearty cheer was borne back down on the breeze to us, in response, the men in the boat pulling for us as soon as they caught our hail.

Here, as they held the canoe fast to keep it from being swept back down the rapids, one of the foremost swung himself in, took his paddle, and began to use it with all his might.

He took another long look, and then with a very slow and gradual motion he deposited his screen upon the sand and backed down to the plain.

"They do not stand in the least fear of pursuit," said he as he backed down to Bob's side, "but they have taken measures to prevent surprise, as they always do when they are on the war-path."

The new owner was to take the dog back down the river that day, but that dog was back almost as soon as the teamster was.

"Yes, he has got to give it up," answered the older brother, seeing that matters had gone too far for either of them to back down.

Back down the street he raced, coat streaming after him in the wind, bowler hat bouncing on his head.

He must sit with his heart choking him and his head in a blaze, and keep stuffing words back down his throat.

He hesitated, and I could see his Adam's apple travel up above the knot of his tie and back down again as he swallowed.

She said all the girls here would crow over us, and act as if we were backing down, and had done this because someone made us.

Dodge, that I do not propose to be backed down and driven out of this section by a man like that.

For only a few moments this uncertainty lasted, and then back down the chasm came a noise that caused the listener to start in his saddle.

She could only sit and watch the little boy turn and stump back down the aisle and around the room to where along the wall hung rows of feminine apparel.