backtrack

See also: back-track

English

Etymology

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der.?
Proto-Germanic *baką
Proto-West Germanic *bak
Old English bæc
Middle English bak
English back
Old French trac
Middle English trak / tracke
English track
English backtrack

    From back + track.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /ˈbæk.tɹæk/
    • Audio (US):(file)

    Noun

    backtrack (plural backtracks)

    1. The act of backtracking.

    Translations

    Verb

    backtrack (third-person singular simple present backtracks, present participle backtracking, simple past and past participle backtracked)

    1. To retrace one's steps.
      I dropped my sunglasses and had to backtrack to find them.
      • 2008, Lauren Beukes, Moxyland - Page 86:
        Trophy in paw, I invest another hour twenty backtracking to find my original spawn-in spot, and reduce Fluffoki and her little friendlings to so much dead flesh, although sorry to say, it being a kids' game, they die in splatters of sparks rather than [...]
    2. To repeat or review work already done.
      If we backtrack through this problem, maybe we can figure out where we went wrong.
    3. (aviation) To taxi down an active runway in the opposite direction to that being used for takeoff.
      Speedbird One: enter and backtrack Runway 27 Left.
    4. To exercise a racehorse around the racetrack in the opposite direction to that in which races are run.
    5. To go back on or withdraw a statement.
      Synonym: backpedal
      After enormous public outrage, the government backtracked on its proposed ban.
      • 2020 August 22, Adam Kilgore, “Baseball’s unwritten rules may be softening, but they haven’t gone away”, in The Washington Post‎[1], Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 November 2020:
        Woodward’s mild rebuke of Tatis received backlash from most players who spoke out, and even Woodward backtracked and reexplained himself the next day.
      • 2024 October 6, Justine McDaniel and Anumita Kaur, “Harris’s own ballot will include crime measure dividing Democrats in Calif.”, in The Washington Post‎[2], Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 November 2024:
        “You saw the disaster that followed when Trump spoke out against the Florida [amendment],” said Trish Crouse, a political science professor at the University of New Haven. “He found himself having to backtrack and reexplain himself.”
      • 2026 June 11, Steve Dent, “Anthropic backtracks on policy that 'sabotaged' researchers' work”, in Engadget‎[3], archived from the original on 31 August 2026:

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