| Library / English Dictionary |
BACKWARD AND FORWARD
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Moving from one place to another and back again
Example:
the old man just sat on the porch and rocked back and forth all day
Synonyms:
back and forth; backward and forward; to and fro
Classified under:
Context examples:
They went some paces off, as if it were to confer together, walking side by side, backward and forward, like persons deliberating upon some affair of weight, but often turning their eyes towards me, as it were to watch that I might not escape.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
As I stood in the passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little slit of dim light which shone out from under the door.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The emperor holds a stick in his hands, both ends parallel to the horizon, while the candidates advancing, one by one, sometimes leap over the stick, sometimes creep under it, backward and forward, several times, according as the stick is advanced or depressed.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
He then placed me softly on the ground upon all fours, but I got immediately up, and walked slowly backward and forward, to let those people see I had no intent to run away.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
