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PULL BACK
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity
Example:
The aggressive investment company pulled in its horns
Synonyms:
back away; back out; crawfish; crawfish out; pull back; pull in one's horns; retreat; withdraw
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Verb group:
draw back; move back; pull away; pull back; recede; retire; retreat; withdraw (pull back or move away or backward)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Sense 2
Meaning:
Stretch back a bowstring (on an archer's bow)
Example:
The archers were drawing their bows
Synonyms:
draw; pull back
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "pull back" is one way to...):
stretch (pull in opposite directions)
Verb group:
pull back (move to a rearward position; pull towards the back)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 3
Meaning:
Move to a rearward position; pull towards the back
Example:
Pull back your arms!
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "pull back" is one way to...):
draw; pull (cause to move by pulling)
Verb group:
draw; pull back (stretch back a bowstring (on an archer's bow))
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Sense 4
Meaning:
Use a surgical instrument to hold open (the edges of a wound or an organ)
Synonyms:
draw back; pull back; retract
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "pull back" is one way to...):
pull (apply force so as to cause motion towards the source of the motion)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 5
Meaning:
Pull back or move away or backward
Example:
The limo pulled away from the curb
Synonyms:
draw back; move back; pull away; pull back; recede; retire; retreat; withdraw
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
Hypernyms (to "pull back" is one way to...):
go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)
Verb group:
back away; back out; crawfish; crawfish out; pull back; pull in one's horns; retreat; withdraw (make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pull back"):
fall back (move back and away from)
retreat; retrograde (move back)
back down; back off; back up (move backwards from a certain position)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP
Derivation:
pullback ((military) the act of pulling back (especially an orderly withdrawal of troops))
