back forty

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

So, you’re not saying he was a special agent going back forty years?

From The New Yorker • Nov. 24, 2019

And, here, it’s instructive again to go back forty years.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 11, 2019

“Main man, you’re my support,” it begins, “your two strong legs, your back forty years against a brick wall.”

From New York Times • Mar. 31, 2012

To drive back forty thousand with one hundred and twenty thousand would not apparently prove difficult, and it was no doubt this conviction which had occasioned the joyous exclamation of General Hooker.

From A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee by Cooke, John Esten

Tuesday night the British were in possession of La Ferte-sous-Jouarre and Chateau Thierry and the Germans had fallen back forty miles, leaving a long train of spoils behind them.

From America's War for Humanity by Russell, Thomas Herbert