Word.ws English Dictionary

going back to the tools

going back to the tools is the present participle and gerund of go back to the tools.

Meaning of go back to the tools

Verb

go back to the tools (third-person singular simple present goes back to the tools, present participle going back to the tools, simple past went back to the tools, past participle gone back to the tools)

  1. (industrial relations) To return to one's job after having held, or failed to obtain, a position in a trade union.
    • I think Brother Bartalini put it very well when he said they would laugh at you if you had to go back to the tools.1966, Proceedings of the General Convention, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, page 414

Questions about going back to the tools

What is going back to the tools the present participle and gerund of?
Going back to the tools is the present participle and gerund of go back to the tools.

Words near going back to the tools in the dictionary

  1. going back a long way
  2. going back in time
  3. going back on
  4. going back to
  5. going back to the drawing board
  6. going back to the tools
  7. going backwards
  8. going bad
  9. going ballistic
  10. going balls up
  11. going bananas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: going back to the tools (page history and authors); go back to the tools (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: “going back to the tools.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/going_back_to_the_tools. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.