📖 Definitions of "Backpedalling"
verb
- 1
To pedal backwards on a bicycle.
- 2
To step backwards.
"The player had to backpedal before catching the ball."
- 3
To distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement; back off from an idea.
"Though initially adopting a hard-line stance, the politician soon started to backpedal."
💡 Words with a Similar Meaning to "Backpedalling"
Found via reverse dictionary — words that share a conceptual meaning.
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| backpedalingnoun | The act of distancing oneself from a previously supported idea, action, behaviour, etc.; a U-turn or flip-flop. |
| backpedalnoun | An act of backpedalling (in any sense). |
| backpedaledverb | (intransitive, idiomatic) To distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement; back off from an idea. |
| backtrackingnoun | (computer science) The act of building all possible solutions to a problem incrementally, abandoning any candidate solution if it cannot lead to a valid solution. |
| backtrackedverb | To retrace one's steps. |
| backtracknoun | The act of backtracking. |
| backslidingnoun | An occasion on which one backslides, especially in a moral sense. |
| deflectionnoun | The act of deflecting or something deflected. |
| deflectingnoun | Something which deflects something else, especially a stream of fluid or particles. |
| back downverb | (idiomatic, intransitive) To take a less aggressive position in a conflict than one previously had, or has planned to have. |
| prevaricatesverb | (intransitive) To speak or act in a manner that is intentionally ambiguous or evasive; equivocate. |
| prevaricatingverb | (intransitive) To speak or act in a manner that is intentionally ambiguous or evasive; equivocate. |
| back outverb | (intransitive) To withdraw from something one has agreed to do. |
| backbitingnoun | The action of slandering a person without that person's knowledge. |
| retreatingverb | The act of moving back from something; a retreat. |
| backfiringnoun | The occurrence of a backfire. |
| backoffnoun | (computing) The situation where an algorithm or process refrains from taking an action it would otherwise have taken. |
| prevaricateverb | (intransitive) To speak or act in a manner that is intentionally ambiguous or evasive; equivocate. |
| backfirenoun | A premature explosion in the cylinder of a gas or oil engine during the exhaust or the compression stroke, tending to drive the piston in the wrong direction. |
| back awayverb | (intransitive) To move in a direction opposite to that which one is facing, keeping one's attention on the thing in front being avoided. |
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