as in to back down
to break a promise or agreement
you'd better not back off on your promise to do all the planning for the big dance
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Recent Examples of back off
Nevertheless, after this both the U.S. and Iran then backed off from deepening the conflict.
—
Javed Ali, The Conversation, 22 June 2025
Although LLMs are not 100% autonomous with this yet, and there’s often a need for some debugging, vibe coding essentially asks the programmer to back off and let the AI do its thing.
—John Werner, Forbes.com, 19 June 2025
This rebound in sentiment is also reflected in the options market, where—for the first time since April—traders have backed off from bearish dollar positions.
—Lionel Lim, Fortune, 19 June 2025
With one out and nobody on base, Padres starter Randy Vásquez threw an inside, knee-high heater for ball one, brushing Ohtani back off the plate.
—Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 18 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for back off
Javed Ali, The Conversation, 22 June 2025
Although LLMs are not 100% autonomous with this yet, and there’s often a need for some debugging, vibe coding essentially asks the programmer to back off and let the AI do its thing.
—John Werner, Forbes.com, 19 June 2025
This rebound in sentiment is also reflected in the options market, where—for the first time since April—traders have backed off from bearish dollar positions.
—Lionel Lim, Fortune, 19 June 2025
With one out and nobody on base, Padres starter Randy Vásquez threw an inside, knee-high heater for ball one, brushing Ohtani back off the plate.
—Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 18 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for back off
Recent Examples of Synonyms for back off
Verb
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The justices kicked the cases challenging the birthright citizenship policy back down to the lower courts, where judges will have to decide how to tailor their orders to comply with the new ruling.—
Tim Sullivan,
Chicago Tribune,
28 June 2025
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Uncertainty ahead The justices kicked the cases challenging the birthright citizenship policy back down to the lower courts, where judges will have to decide how to tailor their orders to comply with the new ruling.—
Tim Sullivan,
Los Angeles Times,
28 June 2025
Verb
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When Harper asks Pam if anyone ever left the group after just one turn of the Wheel, Pam — a true believer — can’t fathom backing out of the group.—
Jim Ruland,
Los Angeles Times,
19 June 2025
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Finding his courage, Spike convinces his mom to follow him back out into the world, hoping to find a cure or simply some kind of explanation.—
Peter Debruge,
Variety,
18 June 2025
Verb
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But with that brief wave of hope came new footage on Twitter every night of the NYPD acting like bad cops out of a Harvey Keitel flick: cops harassing peaceful crowds, cops kettling activists, cops literally driving a car into a crowd of protestors.—
Maris Kreizman,
Rolling Stone,
24 June 2025
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The relative lack of substance across the board can’t help feeling like a cop out for a show that’s been capable of a lot more.—
Christian Blauvelt,
IndieWire,
14 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Back off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/back%20off. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.
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