rollback

1 of 2

noun

roll·​back ˈrōl-ˌbak 

: the act or an instance of rolling back

a government-ordered rollback of gasoline prices

roll back

2 of 2

verb

rolled back; rolling back; rolls back

transitive verb

1

: to reduce or decrease something

rolling back their mortgage rates

specifically : to reduce (something, such as a commodity price) to or toward a previous level on a national scale

2

: to cause to retreat or withdraw : push back

3

: rescind

attempted to roll back antipollution standards

Synonyms of rollback

Verb

• abolish
• repeal
• cancel
• set aside
• avoid
• strike down
• overturn

Examples of rollback in a Sentence

Noun

a government-ordered rollback of gasoline prices

a rollback in environmental regulations

a rollback of previous wage concessions

Verb

lobbyists for the industry pressured the legislators to roll back the new automotive safety standards

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

The potential ruling would trigger a rollback of the president’s tariffs, likely pushing stocks higher. —Liz Napolitano, CNBC, 5 Nov. 2025

And the cruelty and lethality will only grow as the Administration expands its rollback of public-health advances to the homeland. —The New Yorker, New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2025

Verb

From there, the series rolls back to 1880. —Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 6 Nov. 2025

Earlier this year, OpenAI rolled back an update to ChatGPT after the bot became weirdly overeager to please its users, complimenting even the most comically bad or dangerous ideas. —Damon Beres, The Atlantic, 5 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1937, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1942, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for rollback

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