Word.ws English Dictionary

on the back foot

on the back foot prepositional phrase: having the weight on the back foot in order to play a defensive stroke.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Having the weight on the back foot in order to play a defensive stroke
  2. (Commonwealth, idiomatic) in a defensive posture; on the defensive; off balance; at a disadvantage.
    • Lawson wasn't going to be put on the back foot by Brian Duff. "I don't know what you're on about. But I've kept my nose clean for over twenty years.2003, Val McDermid, The distant echo, page 184
    • Now I was the one on the back foot. He liked me. "Really?" "I'd like to take you out when we're back in LA"2005, Clare Naylor with Mimi Hare, The Second Assistant: A Tale from the Bottom of the Hollywood Ladder, page 289

on the back foot meaning in Tamil and Bengali

on the back foot in Tamil

தற்காத்துக் கொள்ள பின்வாங்குவது

on the back foot in Bengali

রক্ষণাত্মক অবস্থানে, ভারসাম্যহীন, অসুবিধার মধ্যে

Examples of on the back foot in a sentence

  • "They would not have wanted to put her in jail, in this scenario, (but her not showing up today) puts her on the back foot and gives them an edge."2017 August 25, Euan McKirdy et al, "Arrest warrant to be issued for former Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra", in edition.cnn.com, CNN
  • HS2 Ltd is presumably on the back foot in its relations with Government, because of its cost increases.2021 November 17, William Barter, “Will ten platforms do for HS2 at Euston terminus?”, in RAIL, number 944, page 33:

Antonyms of on the back foot

Forms of on the back foot

alternative formon the back footing

Questions about on the back foot

What does on the back foot mean?
On the back foot means having the weight on the back foot in order to play a defensive stroke.
What is on the back foot in Tamil?
On the back foot in Tamil is தற்காத்துக் கொள்ள பின்வாங்குவது. See On the back foot meaning in Tamil.
How do you use on the back foot in a sentence?
"They would not have wanted to put her in jail, in this scenario, (but her not showing up today) puts her on the back foot and gives them an edge."
What part of speech is on the back foot?
On the back foot is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the back foot in the dictionary

  1. on the
  2. on the air
  3. on the alert
  4. on the anvil
  5. on the back burner
  6. on the back foot
  7. on the back of
  8. on the ball
  9. on the bash
  10. on the basis of
  11. on the batter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the back foot (page history and authors); on the back foot (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); on the back foot (Bengali Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-on the back foot.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on the back foot.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_back_foot. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.