The road was on a hill and the boy was going down the slope, and as he flashed by he started backpedalling very quickly so that the free-wheeling mechanism of his bike made a loud whirring sound.
Source: wiktionary
Backpedal
//ˈbækˌpɛdəɫ//
Synonyms for "backpedal" (75 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (15)
Strong matches (23)
Related words (37)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
7 entriesSynonyms
1 entriesderived
3 entriesderived from
2 entriesmanner of
3 entriesrelated to
1 entriesTranslations
50 translations across 9 languages.
Dutch
1 entries- gas terugnemen verb (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement)
Finnish
4 entries- astua taaksepäin verb (to step backwards)
- ottaa takapakkia verb (to step backwards)
- ottaa takapakkia verb (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement)
- peruuttaa verb (to step backwards)
French
4 entries- faire machine arrière verb (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement)
- faire marche arrière verb (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement)
- reculer verb (to step backwards)
- rétropédaler verb (to pedal backwards on a bicycle)
German
4 entries- einen Rückzieher machen verb (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement)
- einen Schritt zurück machen verb (to step backwards)
- nach hinten treten verb (to step backwards)
- rückwärts treten verb (to pedal backwards on a bicycle)
Ido
1 entries- kontre-pedalagar verb (to pedal backwards on a bicycle)
Italian
4 entries- arretrare verb (to step backwards)
- disdirsi verb (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement)
- fare un passo indietro verb (to step backwards)
- indietreggiare verb (to step backwards)
Polish
4 entries- iść do tyłu verb (to step backwards)
- pedałować do tyłu verb (to pedal backwards on a bicycle)
- wycofać się verb (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement)
- wycofywać się verb (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement)
Portuguese
4 entries- contrapedalar verb (to pedal backwards on a bicycle)
- desdizer-se verb (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement)
- mudar de opinião verb (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement)
- pedalar para trás verb (to pedal backwards on a bicycle)
Spanish
4 entries- cejar verb (to step backwards)
- ciar verb (to step backwards)
- contrapedalear verb (to pedal backwards on a bicycle)
- desdecirse verb (to distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement)
Sample sentences
9 total sentences available.
The player had to backpedal before catching the ball.
Source: wiktionary
Though initially adopting a hard-line stance, the politician soon started to backpedal.
Source: wiktionary
The best car sound of 1999 is that of a new Rover 75 being furiously backpedalled through the motoring page of the Sunday Times.
Source: wiktionary
Showing 4 of 9 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.