backs up

verbmove backward
verbsupport

Synonyms for backs up

verb move backward

Antonyms for backs up

Word Origin & History

Old English bæc "back," from Proto-Germanic *bakam (cf. Old Saxon and Middle Dutch bak, Old Frisian bek), with no known connections outside Germanic.

The cognates mostly have been ousted in this sense in other modern Germanic languages by words akin to Modern English ridge (cf. Danish ryg, German Rücken). Many Indo-European languages show signs of once having distinguished the horizontal back of an animal (or a mountain range) from the upright back of a human. In other cases, a modern word for "back" may come from a word related to "spine" (Italian schiena, Russian spina) or "shoulder, shoulder blade" (Spanish espalda, Polish plecy).

To turn (one's) back on (someone or something) "ignore" is from early 14c. Behind (someone's) back "clandestinely" is from late 14c.

To know (something) like the back of one's hand, implying familiarity, is first attested 1893. The first attested use of the phrase is from a dismissive speech made to a character in Robert Louis Stevenson's "Catriona":

The story, a sequel to "Kidnapped," has a Scottish setting and context, and the back of my hand to you was noted in the late 19th century as a Scottish expression meaning "I will have nothing to do with you" [e.g. "Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language"]. In English generally, the back of (one's) hand has been used to imply contempt and rejection since at least 1300. Perhaps the connection of a menacing dismissal is what made Stevenson choose that particular anatomical reference.

Example Sentences for backs up

But they did not come; rather they put their backs up and fought.

Levin backs up Giffen in every word he says, and I agree with both of them.

It's contradiction that makes women contrary; it sets their backs up, like.

But it wasn't for the want of swatting, for it was just that that put the fellows' backs up.

There is, secondly, a motive which backs up and buttresses this exhortation.

"See you've got the boys with their backs up, Chester," said Bijah.

They all look at him and he becomes embarrassed and backs up stage a little.

You can seem to consult me, but it must come from you to them, or else you will be getting their backs up.

"It backs up the judgment of my own group," said Senator Anderson.

She'll only put people's backs up by going on as she's doing at present.