drawing back

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of draw back

plural drawing backs

1. The act of drawing back.

   And the men were afraid.—This signifies a drawing back, as appears from the signification of “being afraid,” as here denoting a drawing back, viz., from conjunction with the internal.

   1863, Emanuel Swedenborg, “Genesis. Chapter the Forty-Third.”, in Arcana Cœlestia. The Heavenly Mysteries Contained in the Holy Scripture, or Word of the Lord, Unfolfed, in an Exposition of Genesis and Exodus: […], volume VII (Genesis, Chapter XXXIX. to Chapter XLIII.), London: […] Swedenborg Society, […], →OCLC, page 375

   3 more examples

   All this shows how the mainline theological tradition has reasserted itself in German political theology, so that there has been a drawing back from the more revolutionary implications of its original insights.

   1978, Charles Davis, “From orthodoxy to politics”, in Theology and Political Society: The Hulsean Lectures in the University of Cambridge, 1978, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; […]: Cambridge University Press, published 1980, →ISBN, page 9

   The political changes that have taken place since the 1990s (and which represent a drawing back from the “socialist revolution”) are reflected in the various neoliberal reforms introduced into the country, many of which imposed by international agencies, who nowadays consider technical support, information and the production and sharing of knowledge to be the main aspects of their involvement in the country (Mehta 2001).

   2007, Maria Paula G. Meneses, “Subjects or Objects of Knowledge? International Consultancy and the Production of Knowledge in Mozambique”, in Boaventura de Sousa Santos, editor, Cognitive Justice in a Global World: Prudent Knowledges for a Decent Life, Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 357

   Not wanting to lose his favorite sword, Orivon hung on grimly to its hilt. During one of its drawing backs, between wall-slams, he leaned down and planted his other sword against the wall, point out and hilt against the stone.

   2008, Ed Greenwood, “Great Slaughtering Battle”, in Dark Vengeance (A Novel of Niflheim; 2), New York, N.Y.: Tor, →ISBN, page 223