draw back

/drɑ bæk/

/drɔ bæk/

Other forms: drew back; drawing back; draws back

To draw back is to retreat or recoil, to physically move back from someone or something. At the sight of the large snake held by a zookeeper, most children will draw back — except for the extreme reptile fans.

You might draw back from the edge of a cliff once you realize how high up the mountain you've climbed, or draw back from your dog after she's rolled in something particularly stinky. There's also a figurative way to draw back, when you change your mind, deciding to do something different than what was expected: "It surprised me when she decided to draw back from studying music and major in economics instead."

Definitions of draw back

1. verb

   pull back or move away or backward
   synonyms: move back, pull away, pull back, recede, retire, retreat, withdraw

   back away, back out, crawfish, crawfish out, pull back, pull in one's horns, retreat, withdraw

   make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity

   types:

   fall back

   move back and away from

   retreat, retrograde

   move back

   back down, back off, back up

   move backwards from a certain position

   ebb, ebb away, ebb down, ebb off, ebb out

   flow back or recede

   type of:

   go, locomote, move, travel

   change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically
2. verb

   use a surgical instrument to hold open (the edges of a wound or an organ)
   synonyms: pull back, retract

   type of:

   pull

   apply force so as to cause motion towards the source of the motion