Word.ws English Dictionary

backpedaling

backpedaling is the present participle and gerund 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

Noun

backpedaling (countable and uncountable, plural backpedalings)

  1. The act of distancing oneself from a previously supported idea, action, behaviour, etc.; a U-turn or flip-flop.
    • Despite the swift backpedalling of the university, the original notice given to stall operators is suggestive of the potential existence of ‘a growing English-speaking elite’ that is ‘happy to maintain the importance of the English language’.2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 3

Forms of backpedaling

Verb
alternative formbackpedalling
Noun
pluralbackpedalings

Questions about backpedaling

What does backpedaling mean?
Backpedaling means the act of distancing oneself from a previously supported idea, action, behaviour, etc.; a U-turn or flip-flop.
What is backpedaling the present participle and gerund of?
Backpedaling is the present participle and gerund of backpedal.
What part of speech is backpedaling?
Backpedaling is a noun.
What is the plural of backpedaling?
The plural of backpedaling is backpedalings.

Words near backpedaling in the dictionary

  1. backpays
  2. backpedal
  3. backpedaled
  4. backpedaler
  5. backpedalers
  6. backpedaling
  7. backpedalings
  8. backpedalled
  9. backpedalling
  10. backpedallings
  11. backpedals

Source and license

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