: activity involving alternating movement in opposite directions
the busy to-and-fro of the holiday shoppers
: forward and backward
: from one place to another
Examples of to-and-fro in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
IEEE Spectrum, 30 Dec. 2011
Russian officials did not confirm Ukraine's gains, which were impossible to verify and could be reversed in the to-and-fro of war.
—Jamey Keaten, ajc, 12 June 2023
After making the seats sway to-and-fro as expected, an attendant would stop the swing and spin the entire room around the riders (all the furniture was bolted to the floor).
—Popular Science, 20 July 2023
That to-and-fro, in my work, of coherence and incoherence interests me a lot.
—Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 18 June 2023
See all Example Sentences for to-and-fro 
Noun
That’s enough to pace the to-and-fro motion of a star to within 1 meter per second—about walking speed—from hundreds of light-years away.
—IEEE Spectrum, 30 Dec. 2011
Russian officials did not confirm Ukraine's gains, which were impossible to verify and could be reversed in the to-and-fro of war.
—Jamey Keaten, ajc, 12 June 2023
After making the seats sway to-and-fro as expected, an attendant would stop the swing and spin the entire room around the riders (all the furniture was bolted to the floor).
—Popular Science, 20 July 2023
That to-and-fro, in my work, of coherence and incoherence interests me a lot.
—Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 18 June 2023
See all Example Sentences for to-and-fro
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'to-and-fro.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near to-and-fro
Cite this Entry
“To-and-fro.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/to-and-fro. Accessed 27 Jul. 2024.
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