Word.ws English Dictionary

to and fro

/ˌtuː ən(d)ˈfɹəʊ/

to and fro adverb: back and forth; with a reciprocating motion.

Adverb

to and fro (not comparable)

  1. Back and forth; with a reciprocating motion.
    • A light tossing to and fro and still rapidly advancing showed that one of the newcomers carried a lantern.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 4, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
    • Article V.—In consideration of the numerous difficulties arising from the authority exercised by local officials over the legal traffic at such places on the boundary as I-chou, Hui-ning, and Ch’ing-yuan, it has now been decided that the people on the frontier shall be free to go to and fro and...1882, G. W. Keeton, “Regulations for Maritime and Overland Trade between Chinese and Korean Subjects, 1882”, in The Development of Extraterritoriality in China, volume II, Longmans, Green & Co....

Verb

to and fro (third-person singular simple present tos and fros or to and fros, present participle toing and froing or to and froing, simple past and past participle toed and froed or to and froed)

  1. (idiomatic) To go back and forth; to alternate.
    • "For a while I didn't tell anyone on the ward where I was going, but my toing and froing made people curious and eventually I confided in a few."2015, Barbara Taylor, The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times

Adjective

to and fro (not comparable)

  1. (dated) Pertaining to something or someone moving forward and back to the same position.
    • The next day he had more power of moving his limbs, and the to and fro sound was thought to be a little less distinct.1847, Peter Mere Latham, Lectures on subjects connected with clinical medicine, comprising diseases, page 90

Noun

to and fro (plural to and fros or tos and fros)

  1. (dated) The movement (of someone or something) forward followed by a return to the same position. May refer to a concept such as an emotional state or a relationship as well as a physical thing.
    • My life's a maze of seeming traps, A scene of mercies and mishaps; A heap of jarring to and fros, A field of joys, A field of woes.1849, Ralph Erskine, Gospel sonnets; or, Spiritual songs, page 233

to and fro meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Sanskrit

to and fro in Tamil

back and forth
முன்னும் பின்னும் muṉṉum piṉṉum

to and fro in Urdu

ادھر ادھر

to and fro in Sanskrit

back and forth
वि vi

Examples of to and fro in a sentence

  • But presently the fumes of the wine rising to his head, he became helplessly drunk and his side-muscles and limbs relaxed and he swayed to and fro on my back.1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now...
  • He bends his knees more than the white man, and oscillates more to and fro, or from side to side.1886, John Burroughs, Winter Sunshine, page 13:

Forms of to and fro

Adverb
alternative formto-and-fro
Verb
third-person singular presenttos and fros
third-person singular presentto and fros
present participletoing and froing
present participleto and froing
past participletoed and froed
pasttoed and froed
past participleto and froed
pastto and froed
Noun
pluralto and fros
pluraltos and fros

Questions about to and fro

What does to and fro mean?
To and fro means back and forth; with a reciprocating motion.
What is to and fro in Tamil?
To and fro in Tamil is முன்னும் பின்னும் (muṉṉum piṉṉum). See To and fro meaning in Tamil.
How do you use to and fro in a sentence?
But presently the fumes of the wine rising to his head, he became helplessly drunk and his side-muscles and limbs relaxed and he swayed to and fro on my back.
What part of speech is to and fro?
To and fro can be an adverb, a verb, an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce to and fro?
To and fro is pronounced /ˌtuː ən(d)ˈfɹəʊ/.

Words near to and fro in the dictionary

  1. to all appearance
  2. to all appearances
  3. to all intents and purposes
  4. to an extent
  5. to and again
  6. to and fro
  7. to and froed
  8. to and froing
  9. to and fros
  10. to arms
  11. to be continued

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: to and fro (page history and authors); to and fro (Urdu 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Aquild-to and fro.wav.

Cite this entry: “to and fro.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/to_and_fro. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.