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Examples of back off in a Sentence
you'd better not back off on your promise to do all the planning for the big dance
Recent Examples on the Web
And, hitting another item on the farmer wish list, French officials have called for the E.U. to back off trade negotiations with the South American Mercosur trade bloc.
—Emily Rauhala, Washington Post, 11 Apr. 2024
In the years that followed, Omar backed off from the idea, saying his family had lost a lot of money, according to the letter.
—James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2024
Fans project onto the personal lives of beloved celebrities, bullying their enemies until the celeb has to release a statement telling people to back off.
—Caroline Mimbs Nyce, The Atlantic, 28 Mar. 2024
Getting Green into the paint defensively was part of a pregame strategy by Kerr that called for their best on-ball defender to back off Boston forward Jaylen Brown.
—Jerry McDonald, The Mercury News, 4 Mar. 2024
In other words, will some back off in contributing money or perhaps hedge their bets now that Ferbert potentially has flipped the script?
—Michael Smolens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Mar. 2024
The final standards released Wednesday didn't back off that ambitious 2032 target in terms of the fleetwide reduction in greenhouse gases, including carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and others that are considered dangerous to human health and contribute to climate change.
—Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press, 20 Mar. 2024
Storyboards for that film originally featured the character with long hair pulled back off her face, but Theron suggested a road warrior like Furiosa wouldn't bother with such things.
—Lauren Huff, EW.com, 19 Mar. 2024
Laurent, though—perhaps a bit more of a mad scientist or poet than your typical in-house perfumer—is not one to back off from a challenge.
—Chloe Schama, Vogue, 27 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'back off.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1920, in the meaning defined above
Articles Related to back off
Dictionary Entries Near back off
Cite this Entry
“Back off.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/back%20off. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.
Kids Definition
back off
verbMore from Merriam-Webster on back off
Britannica English: Translation of back off for Arabic Speakers
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