verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To catch up on an ongoing conversation, by reading previous portions one was not present for. Internet, especially
2. 2
   To catch up on an ongoing conversation, by reading previous portions one was not present for.; To read conversations one was not present for. Internet, broadly, especially
3. 3
   To interpret what one has read previously in the light of later experience or knowledge.

   "Thereafter, Freud was obliged not only to expand but to backread that expansion into all that came before."

Example

More examples

"Thereafter, Freud was obliged not only to expand but to backread that expansion into all that came before."

Etymology

From back + read.

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