Backtrack

//ˈbæk.tɹæk// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of backtracking.
Verb
  1. 1
    To retrace one's steps.

    "I dropped my sunglasses and had to backtrack to find them."

  2. 2
    retrace one's course wordnet
  3. 3
    To repeat or review work already done.

    "If we backtrack through this problem, maybe we can figure out where we went wrong."

  4. 4
    To taxi down an active runway in the opposite direction to that being used for takeoff.

    "Speedbird One: enter and backtrack Runway 27 Left."

  5. 5
    To exercise a racehorse around the racetrack in the opposite direction to that in which races are run.
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    To go back on or withdraw a statement.

    "Woodward’s mild rebuke of Tatis received backlash from most players who spoke out, and even Woodward backtracked and reexplained himself the next day."

Synonyms

All synonyms
backback downback upbackpedalbacktaxibacktaxi

Example

More examples

"President Trump dangled this pardon to encourage Flynn to backtrack on his pledge to cooperate with federal investigators—cooperation that might have exposed the President's own wrongdoing. And it worked."

Etymology

From back + track.

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