Meanings
present singular third person beats back · participle present beating back · participle past beaten back
- transitiveTo fight against and cause to recede.
I couldn't expect people to understand how much their voices actually meant to me—how they had sustained my spirits and beat back whispering doubts on those late, solitary nights.
2020, Barack Obama, chapter 13, in A Promised Land, Crown1 more example
But the Republican blockade in the Senate left Democrats without a clear path forward, and without a means to beat back the restrictive voting laws racing through Republican-led states.
2021 June 22, Nicholas Fandos, “Republicans Block Voting Rights Bill, Dealing Blow to Biden and Democrats”, in The New York Times
Synonyms & antonyms
verbcause to move back by force or influence
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Cite this entry
beat back. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beat%20back
“beat back.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beat%20back. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “beat back,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beat%20back.
Source: beat back on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.