backsteps

Verb

backstep (third-person singular simple present backsteps, present participle backstepping, simple past and past participle backstepped)

1. To take a step backwards
2. To return to a previous place or time.
3. To retract or take back.
   • Tony's smile departed his face and sadness became him. Pete began to backstep his words. He was filled with remorse over what he had asked the Corporal and was quick to reassure Tony that she was there, waiting.2013, Dennis Baker, Restless Hearts
4. To be arranged in steps going backwards.
   • Le Vau is responsible for the jutting central core, while the wings that backstep so elegantly were designed Hardouin-Mansart.2001, Giovanna Magi, All Paris, →ISBN, page 122
5. To recede in an abrupt fashion due to marine transgression.
   • As seen elsewhere in the North Sea, transgression continued in the Late Jurassic, causing shorelines to backstep, with coeval deposition of the Heno Formation clastics and Lola Formation claystones.2009, Kw Glennie, Petroleum Geology of the North Sea: Basic Concepts and Recent Advances
6. To finish a specification that was initially incomplete once enough progress has been made to know all the details.
   • Robust adaptive backstepping control algorithms are developed for state feedback tracking of a class of uncertain dynamic nonlinear systems preceded by unknown dead-zone nonlinearities, in the presence of bounded external disturbances.2008, Jing Zhou, Changyun Wen, Adaptive Backstepping Control of Uncertain Systems, →ISBN, page 165

See all 12 meanings of backstep