go back

verb

went back; gone back; going back; goes back

intransitive

1

: to return to a place, activity, or situation

I forgot my phone and had to go back.

I left school but later went back.

Once you do this, there's no going back. [=you cannot undo what has been done]

2

: to have existed for a particular amount of time or since a particular period

traditions that go back to ancient times

3

: to have known each other for a particular amount of time or for a long time

We go back 30 years.

They go way back.

4

: to think or talk about something from the past

To understand, you have to go back to when it started.

see also:

go back on

Examples of go back in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

After this, there will be a lot of going back and forth across the Channel; crimes of the aristocracy; Darnay’s own Big Secret revealed; more trials, more imprisonments. — Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 6 Sep. 2026

Now the restaurant is one of the places where Ortega carries on with life without Burciaga, who went back to his parents’ remote hometown in the mountains of Durango. — Andrew Carter, Chicago Tribune, 6 Sep. 2026

Prices generally went back down to pre-tariff levels about three months after the levies were removed. — Rachel Siegel, CNN Money, 6 Sep. 2026

Wall Street veteran Ed Yardeni has dismissed warnings of an imminent debt crisis and instead thinks yields are just going back to normal, before the Great Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a era of ultra-low rates. — Jason Ma, Fortune, 6 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for go back

• aback
• attack
• backpack
• backtrack
• bareback
• blackjack
• brownback
• buyback
• callback
• cognac
• comeback
• cutback