Backfoot

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To put on the defensive; to put off balance. transitive

    "Hamlet is bitter, evasive, now backfooting them, now attacking, now genial - their job isn't going to be easy."

Example

More examples

"Hamlet is bitter, evasive, now backfooting them, now attacking, now genial - their job isn't going to be easy."

Etymology

From back + foot.

Related phrases

on back footon back footing

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.