backing away

Verb

back away (third-person singular simple present backs away, present participle backing away, simple past and past participle backed away)

1. (intransitive) To move in a direction opposite to that which one is facing, keeping one's attention on the thing in front being avoided.
   • Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’[…].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking...1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
2. (intransitive) To cease supporting something; to pretend one has never supported something.