Word.ws English Dictionary

throws back

throws back is the third-person singular simple present indicative of throw back.

Meaning of throw back

Verb

throw back (third-person singular simple present throws back, present participle throwing back, simple past threw back, past participle thrown back)

  1. (transitive) To hinder the development of something.
  2. (intransitive) To revert to an earlier stage of development.
    • The Century
      A large proportion of the steerage passengers throw back to their Darwinian ancestry.
  3. (transitive) To retort.
    • She jumped to her feet and began stalking away. “Going to cost me fifteen dollars to clean this outfit,” she threw back over her shoulder.2011, Delores Haltom, The Stonecutter: How the Word Became Flesh, page 120
  4. (transitive) To drink quickly, especially alcoholic beverages.
    • We threw back drinks until the next morning.
    Synonyms:
    toss off
  5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see throw, back.
    • I threw back my head and laughed uproariously.

Questions about throws back

What is throws back the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Throws back is the third-person singular simple present indicative of throw back.

Words near throws back in the dictionary

  1. throws an ant into a sty
  2. throws an eye
  3. throws aside
  4. throws away
  5. throws away the key
  6. throws back
  7. throws BBs
  8. throws by
  9. throws caution to the wind
  10. throws cold water on
  11. throws down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: throws back (page history and authors); throw back (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: “throws back.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/throws_back. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.