Word.ws English Dictionary

back-to-the-soil

back-to-the-soil adjective: of a movement, lifestyle, or philosophy that advocates for leaving industrialized, urban environments to live a simpler, self-sufficient life in the country.

Adjective

back-to-the-soil (comparative more back-to-the-soil, superlative most back-to-the-soil)

  1. Of a movement, lifestyle, or philosophy that advocates for leaving industrialized, urban environments to live a simpler, self-sufficient life in the country.
    • The seventeen-mile jaunt over the macadamized road is worth while, not only for the purpose of viewing the castle where King Edward the Second was starved in a dungeon, but it affords an opportunity for those interested in the back-to-the-soil movement to witness the conditions under which the...1911, Unattributed, The Automobile, page 504
    • A great back-to-the-soil exhibit next claimed our attensh.1915, Willard Connelly, “Through Panama to Frisco”, in Boston American

Examples of back-to-the-soil in a sentence

  • This is a back-to-the-soil year, and blue jeans are in order.1943, Unattrivuted, “Hound Tunes In Down on the Farm”, in Vogue:
  • He talks grandly of germinating a "back-to-the-soil movement" that would eclipse the Victory Gardens of World Wars I and II, drive down food prices and feed the nation in times of shortage.1974, William Greider, “Congressman Seeks to Plow Funds Into Backyard Gardens”, in International Herald Tribune:
  • Briers won his broad audience as Tom Good in the classic TV sitcom, The Good Life, a back-to-the-soil sitcom1993, Robert Shelton, Jordan Times:

Forms of back-to-the-soil

comparativemore back-to-the-soil
superlativemost back-to-the-soil

Questions about back-to-the-soil

What does back-to-the-soil mean?
Back-to-the-soil means of a movement, lifestyle, or philosophy that advocates for leaving industrialized, urban environments to live a simpler, self-sufficient life in the country.
How do you use back-to-the-soil in a sentence?
This is a back-to-the-soil year, and blue jeans are in order.
What part of speech is back-to-the-soil?
Back-to-the-soil is an adjective.

Words near back-to-the-soil in the dictionary

  1. back-to-basics
  2. back-to-nature
  3. back-to-school
  4. back-to-school night
  5. back-to-school nights
  6. back-to-the-soil
  7. back-to-work order
  8. back-to-work orders
  9. back-track
  10. back-tracked
  11. back-tracking

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: back-to-the-soil (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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