back up
See also: backup and back-up
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file) Audio (GA) (file)
Verb
back up (third-person singular simple present backs up, present participle backing up, simple past and past participle backed up)
- (idiomatic, intransitive) To move backwards, especially for a vehicle to do so.
- That beeping sound indicates that the truck is backing up.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:
- We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. […] As we reached the lodge we heard the whistle, and we backed up against one side of the platform as the train pulled up at the other.
- Coordinate terms: back away, back off, stand back
- (idiomatic, transitive) To move a vehicle backwards.
- Back up the car a little, you're blocking the driveway.
- Synonym: reverse
- Hyponym: back out
- (idiomatic, intransitive) To undo one's actions.
- I couldn't see how to finish the project, so I backed up and tried it another way.
- Synonym: back out
- (idiomatic, intransitive) To reconsider one's thoughts.
- This isn't working. Let's back up and think about it.
- (idiomatic, computing, transitive) To copy (data) so that it can be restored if the main copy is lost.
- Back up your documents folder before applying the update.
- (idiomatic, transitive) To provide support or the promise of support to.
- You should be careful. This guy is backed up by the local gang.
- When he said I wasn't there, I told him I was, and my buddy backed me up.
- 2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, OCLC 1261299044, PC, scene: Update on Jaal:
- Thank you for backing me up. I know it's not easy delivering bad news-especially to a friend-but sometimes it's the only way we can move forward and begin to heal.
- 2020 May 6, Tim Dunn, “The Architecture The Railways Built”, in Rail, page 76:
- Researching and corroborating facts to put in my script is one thing, but getting sources to back up the assertions of interviewed contributors can be quite another.
- Synonyms: back, support
- (idiomatic, intransitive, cricket) For the non-striker to take a few steps down the pitch, in preparation to taking a run, just as the bowler bowls the ball.
- (idiomatic, intransitive, cricket) For a fielder to position himself behind the wicket (relative to a team-mate who is throwing the ball at the wicket) so as to stop the ball, and prevent overthrows.
- (idiomatic, intransitive, of a blockage) To halt the flow or movement of something.
- When I flushed the toilet, the plumbing backed up and burst.
- Synonym: plug up
- (idiomatic, intransitive, informal) To fill up because of a backlog.
- 1995, "Oubliette" (episode of The X-Files TV series)
- WAITRESS: Hurry up with those drinks, Lucy. We're backing up. (Grabs the drinks LUCY has poured.) What are you doing? These are regular. They all ordered large.
- Synonym: fall behind
- 1995, "Oubliette" (episode of The X-Files TV series)
Derived terms
- backupable
Translations
To move backwards, especially for a vehicle to do so
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To move a vehicle backwards
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To copy as a security measure
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For the non-striker to take a few steps down the pitch
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For a fielder to position himself behind the wicket
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See also
- back down
- back into
- back off
- back out
Anagrams
- upback