Word.ws English Dictionary

backpedaled

backpedaled is the simple past and past participle 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

Forms of backpedaled

alternative formbackpedalled

Questions about backpedaled

What is backpedaled the simple past and past participle of?
Backpedaled is the simple past and past participle of backpedal.

Words near backpedaled in the dictionary

  1. backpatted
  2. backpatting
  3. backpay
  4. backpays
  5. backpedal
  6. backpedaled
  7. backpedaler
  8. backpedalers
  9. backpedaling
  10. backpedalings
  11. backpedalled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backpedaled (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: “backpedaled.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/backpedaled. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.