Pull back
verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pull, back.
"Her nightgown was thin, and she felt chilly as she stepped across the hall, pulling back the curtain that shielded Gabriel's room."
- 2 make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity wordnet
- 3 To retreat.
"Central African armed forces (FACA) troops were forced to pull back from the town and were planning an operation to retake it, the source said."
- 4 stretch back a bowstring (on an archer's bow) wordnet
- 5 To pass (the ball) into a position further from the attacking goal line. transitive
"December 1 2010, Paul Fletcher, BBC News, Ipswich 1-0 West Brom Jason Scotland should have scored after Tamas advanced purposefully down the right before pulling the ball back into the path of his team-mate, who shot straight at Myhill."
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 move to a rearward position; pull towards the back wordnet
- 7 To score when the team is losing. transitive
"Feb 19 2007, Al-Jazeera, Stylish Sevilla pull level with faltering Barcelona Ronaldinho pulled back a goal for Barca in injury time with a classy free-kick, but it was clearly too little too late to prevent their third Liga defeat."
- 8 use a surgical instrument to hold open (the edges of a wound or an organ) wordnet
- 9 pull back or move away or backward wordnet
Example
More examples"Her nightgown was thin, and she felt chilly as she stepped across the hall, pulling back the curtain that shielded Gabriel's room."