How to use pushback in a sentence

12 example sentences · noun

Pushback means the act of repelling an enemy, etc. Example: “Sweden, as well as the UK, recently announced pushbacks on green targets and budgets, while there are negative noises from Germany on building insulation costs.”

Examples of pushback by meaning

nounA reversal or reduction.

Sweden, as well as the UK, recently announced pushbacks on green targets and budgets, while there are negative noises from Germany on building insulation costs.2023 October 10, Senay Boztas, “Frans Timmermans urges European left to unite against right’s climate backlash”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

nounCriticism of or resistance to a proposal, stance, or event.

We’ve seen that before, too: civil rights era sit-ins and freedom rides with multiracial participants drew the fierce ire of authorities alike, but black protesters were far more likely to be targeted with harsh jail sentences and violent pushback.2014 December 19, Paul M Farber, “Die-ins demand that we bear witness to black people's fears that they'll be next”, in The Guardian
“I started just connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate change, and then the volume of pushback started to increase quite dramatically,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press.2023 July 9, AP, quoting Chris Gloninger, “‘You should have seen this note’: US meteorologists harassed for reporting on climate crisis”...
Obsessed only with cost, 'Sir Humphrey' saw that Transport for London 'got away' with ticket office closures on the Tube with only minor public pushback and miscalculated that it could do the same on the national network.2023 August 9, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Disinterested and dishonest”, in RAIL, number 989, page 3

nounSummary expulsion of asylum seekers, especially when violating the principle of non-refoulement.

"Every single pushback represents a violation of international and EU law – whether it involves violence or not."2021 May 5, Lorenzo Tondo, quoting Nicola Bay, “Revealed: 2,000 refugee deaths linked to illegal EU pushbacks”, in The Guardian
Jasmin Redjepi, president of Legis, said the “disturbing and degrading” pushbacks came shortly after an EU-Serbian border cooperation summit, aimed at strengthening the Serbian border against people-smuggling operations.2024 February 22, Katy Fallon, Lorenzo Tondo, “Videos show migrants stripped of clothing in freezing temperatures at Serbian border”, in...

nounSquashing the main video channel into part of the screen to allow another video feed to be played simultaneously...

CBS’s new brand identity end credits “pushback”2018 October 5, Michael P. Hill, “NBC forgoes complete brand overhaul, but does add new vanity card”, in Newscast Studio

More sentences with pushback

The pushback is ongoing and most recently represented by the internet-driven trend known as comfortcore (3.5 billion views on TikTok).2023 March 3, Eleanor Flegg, “The comfort v style dilemma: Thought you couldn’t combine the two? Think again — our experts explain exactly…. From the entry comfortcore
The longer social-media shamers condemn preferences that the overwhelming majority of people share, the more inevitable the pushback.2021 July 4, Conor Friedersdorf, “The Sexual Identity That Emerged on TikTok”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 07 Apr 2021. From the entry shamer
That pushback from inside the administration was combined with rising public anger about the cuts that exploded at several lawmakers’ town halls in recent weeks.2025 March 7, Jonathan Lemire, “Is DOGE Losing Steam?”, in The Atlantic. From the entry town hall
You might experience pushback, however, from communities who believe that systemhood can only happen as a result of trauma (this belief is called sysmedicalism).2024, Zarah Eve, anonymous quotee, “Systematic literature review and thematic synthesis” (chapter 3), in Exploring emerging multiplicity…. From the entry sysmedicalism
Even a hint of pushback on anything Carey does or says brings a hellstorm of vitriol at anyone who dares attempt it.2022, Dmitry Samarov, Paint by Numbers, Chicago, Ill.: Pictures&Blather, →ISBN, page 91. From the entry hellstorm

Meaning of pushback

noun The act of repelling an enemy, etc.
noun A procedure in which an aircraft is pushed backwards away from the gate by some external force, usually a special tractor.
noun A reversal or reduction.

Full definition of pushback

Questions about pushback in a sentence

How do you use pushback in a sentence?: Pushback is used as a noun. For example: “Sweden, as well as the UK, recently announced pushbacks on green targets and budgets, while there are negative noises from Germany on building insulation costs.”
What is a short sentence with pushback?: “CBS’s new brand identity end credits “pushback””
What does pushback mean?: Pushback means the act of repelling an enemy, etc.

Adapted from Wiktionary: pushback (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use pushback in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/pushback. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.