Word.ws English Dictionary

step back

UK/stɛp ˈbæk/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/step ˈbæk/

step back verb: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see step, back.

Verb

step back (third-person singular simple present steps back, present participle stepping back, simple past and past participle stepped back)

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see step, back.
    • Entering Avebury from any direction is like stepping back into the past. Before the centre of the village is reached, the road passes through an immense circle of brooding stones which stand like petrified ghosts of an age about which little is known.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 40
    • Engineers from the Tyne & Wear Metro stepped back in time in December, to conduct a safety-critical inspection of the tramway at the open-air Beamish Museum in County Durham.2022 January 12, “Network News: Nexus inspects Beamish lines”, in RAIL, number 948, page 14
  2. (idiomatic) To stop what one is doing and evaluate the current situation.
    • Perhaps we should step back for a second and think about solving this problem a different way.
    • Making the announcement at 1600 on Friday November 4, the RDG [...] said in a statement: "It is positive that the RMT leadership has stepped back from the brink and called off their strike action.2022 November 16, Mel Holley, “Rail strikes halted to allow for "intensive negotiations"”, in RAIL, page 8
  3. (idiomatic) To prevent oneself from becoming emotionally involved in a certain situation.
    • As a therapist sometimes you have to step back from your clients' lives.
  4. to depart driving the train following the train they arrived into the station driving, so as to decrease service turnaround time.
  5. (idiomatic) To retreat from one's duties in a job; to reduce one's duties, often as a prelude to leaving a position; to take a back seat.
    • He's stepping back from the role to let you start in it.
  6. (idiomatic) To quietly abandon a belief.
    • You need to step back from the threat you made.

Noun

step back (plural steps back)

  1. (idiomatic) A setback, downgrade, or deterioration.
    • Switching to more frequent meetings was a step back for that team, which had too many meetings already.
    Antonyms:
    leg up
  2. (idiomatic) A reversion to a former state or situation.

step back meaning in Kannada

step back in Kannada

ಪಿಂತಡಿ, ಪಿಂದಡಿ, ಪೆರಗೇರು, ಪೆರಗೇರಿಸು, ಪೆರಪಿಂಗು, ಹೆರಹಿಂಗು

Synonyms of step back

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of step back

Forms of step back

Verb
third-person singular presentsteps back
present participlestepping back
past participlestepped back
paststepped back
Noun
pluralsteps back

Questions about step back

What does step back mean?
Step back means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see step, back.
What is step back in Kannada?
Step back in Kannada is ಪಿಂತಡಿ, ಪಿಂದಡಿ, ಪೆರಗೇರು. See Step back meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is step back?
Step back can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce step back?
Step back is pronounced /stɛp ˈbæk/ (UK).
What is the past tense of step back?
The past tense of step back is stepped back.

Words near step back in the dictionary

  1. Stenzels
  2. step
  3. step aerobics
  4. step and repeat
  5. step aside
  6. step back
  7. step between
  8. step by step
  9. step chair
  10. step chairs
  11. step change

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: step back (page history and authors); step back (Kannada 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-step back.ogg.

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