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| Back and Edge. |
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Entirely, heartily, tooth and nail, with might and main. The reference is to a wedge driven home to split wood. | 1 |
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“They were working back and edge for me.”—Boldrewood: Robbery under Arms, ch. ii. |
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To back and fill. A mode of tacking, when the tide is with the vessel and the wind against it. Metaphorically, to be irresolute. | 2 |
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To back out. To draw back from an engagement, bargain, etc., because it does not seem so plausible as you once thought it. Many horses are unwilling to go out of a stable head foremost, and are backed out. | 3 |
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“Octavius backs out; his caution and reserve come to her rescue.”—C. Clarke: Shakespeare. |
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To back the field. To bet on all the horses bar one. A sporting term used in betting. | 4 |
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To back the sails. So to arrange them that the ship’s way may be checked. | 5 |
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To back up. To uphold, to support. As one who stands at your back to support you. | 6 |
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At the back of. Behind, following close after. Figure from following a leader. | 7 |
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| “With half the city at his back.” | |
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To see his back; to see the back of anything. To get rid of a person or thing; to see it leave. | 8 |
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Back the oars or back water is to row backwards, that the boat may move the reverse of its ordinary direction. | 9 |
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On the back of. Immediately after. Figure from soldiers on the march. | 10 |
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To the back, that is, to the backbone, entirely. | 11 |
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To break the back of a thing. To surmount the hardest part. | 12 |
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His back is up. He is angry, he shows that he is annoyed. The allusion is to a cat, which sets its back up when attacked by a dog or other animal. | 13 |
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To get one’s back up. To be irritated (See above). | 14 |
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To have his back at the wall. To act on the defensive against odds. One beset with foes tries to get his back against a wall that he may not be attacked by foes behind. | 15 |
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“He planted his back against a wall, in a skilful attitude of fence, ready with his bright glancing rapier to do battle with all the heavy flerce unarmed men, some six or seven in number.”—Mrs. Gaskell: The Poor Clare, iii. |
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To set one’s back up. (See above.) | 16 |
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| “That word set my back up.” | |
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Dame Huddle’s Letter (1710). |
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To turn one’s back on another. To leave, forsake, or neglect him. To leave one by going away. | 17 |
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“At length we … turn our backs on the outskirts of civilisation.”—Tristram: Moab, ii. 19. |
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Behind my back. When I was not present. When my back was turned. | 18 |
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Laid on one’s back. Laid up with chronic ill-health; helpless. Figure from persons extremely ill. | 19 |
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Thrown on his back. Completely worsted. A figure taken from wrestlers. | 20 |
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