draw back

Another Otsuchi resident, Yukari Kurosawa, was told a simpler adage when she was young: “If a big earthquake hits and the ocean draws back, run!”

Instead of playing Lecter as obviously monstrous, "you go the opposite way, you draw back", he explains.

He called it "a shame" that the United States was "drawing back" from scientific exploration in the region.

Nor is it good news for workers, whose job security becomes less stable if businesses draw back on investment and start to cut costs.

“We can’t allow this kind of bullying to make us so fearful that we are paralyzed and that we draw back from our core values.”