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back of

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, at the back of ; in back of . Behind; also, supporting. For example, The special brands were stored back of the counter , or “Franklin stood back of me in everything I wanted to do” (Eleanor Roosevelt, quoted by Catherine Drinker Bowen, Atlantic Monthly , March 1970). The first term, dating from the late 1600s, was long criticized as an undesirable colloquialism but today is generally considered acceptable. The variants, at the back of , from about 1400, and in back of , from the early 1900s, also can be used both literally and figuratively and could be substituted for back of in either example. Also see back of beyond .

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

"Consumers have not only been grappling with multiple April cost increases in the form of utilities, council tax, stamp duty, and road tax, but they are also hearing dire warnings of renewed high inflation on the back of the Trump tariffs," said Neil Bellamy, consumer insights director at GfK.

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Rachel Reeves said there were similarities with the way both the US and UK governments had come to power off the back of voter frustration with the economy.

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Many of the thousands of motorists who've been delayed, art lovers appalled by the attacks on great paintings, or the sports fans and theatre goers whose events were interrupted, will be glad to see the back of them.

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Groft, who law enforcement sources say bears a tattoo of the Roman numerals 666 on the back of his head, was taken into custody at a homeless encampment on Sunset Boulevard and Custer Avenue in Chinatown.

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“The ‘chef-ification’ of sandwiches became popular off the back of COVID,” says MasterChef Australia judge and food journalist Sofia Levin.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

back o' Bourke back of beyond

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