Word.ws English Dictionary

back-pedal

back-pedal is the alternative form of backpedal.

Meaning of backpedal

Verb

backpedal (third-person singular simple present backpedals, present participle (US) backpedaling or (UK) backpedalling, simple past and past participle (US) backpedaled or (UK) backpedalled)

  1. (intransitive) To pedal backwards on a bicycle.
    • The road was on a hill and the boy was going down the slope, and as he flashed by he started backpedalling very quickly so that the free-wheeling mechanism of his bike made a loud whirring sound.1984, Roald Dahl, Boy
  2. (intransitive) To step backwards.
    • The player had to backpedal before catching the ball.
  3. (idiomatic, intransitive) To distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement; back off from an idea.
    • Though initially adopting a hard-line stance, the politician soon started to backpedal.

See all 4 meanings of backpedal

Questions about back-pedal

What is back-pedal the alternative form of?
Back-pedal is the alternative form of backpedal.

Words near back-pedal in the dictionary

  1. back-pat
  2. back-pats
  3. back-patted
  4. back-patting
  5. back-patty
  6. back-pedal
  7. back-pocket
  8. back-pocketed
  9. back-pocketing
  10. back-pockets
  11. back-pressure

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: back-pedal (page history and authors); backpedal (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “back-pedal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/back-pedal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.