back away

present singular third person backs away · participle present backing away · participle past backed away · past backed away

1. intransitiveTo move in a direction opposite to that which one is facing, keeping one's attention on the thing in front being avoided.

   The WSR has remained in touch with GO-OP, despite the group deciding to back away from the project in the short term.

   2023 February 8, Andrew Mourant, “A serious shuttle service with options to Taunton and beyond”, in RAIL, number 976, page 30

   1 more example

   Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’[…].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

2. intransitiveTo cease supporting something; to pretend one has never supported something.