Word.ws English Dictionary

backing off

backing off is the present participle and gerund of back off.

Meaning of back off

Verb

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

  1. (literally) To move backwards away from something.
    • I tried to back off slowly from the tiger in my path.
  2. (idiomatic) To become less aggressive, particularly when one had appeared committed to act.
    • You need to back off, or the situation could turn ugly.
  3. (idiomatic) To lower the setting of.
    • Could you back off the volume a bit? It’s really loud.
    Synonyms:
    dial back, turn down
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see back, off.
    • The machine may go back off if it gets too hot. [= turn off again, turn back off].

Questions about backing off

What is backing off the present participle and gerund of?
Backing off is the present participle and gerund of back off.

Words near backing off in the dictionary

  1. backing bean
  2. backing beans
  3. backing down
  4. backing in
  5. backing into
  6. backing off
  7. backing on to
  8. backing one out
  9. backing oneself into a corner
  10. backing onto
  11. backing out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backing off (page history and authors); back off (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: “backing off.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/backing_off. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.