Back to Dictionary
Get Free Checker

back up

VERB
  1. move backwards from a certain position
    The bully had to back down
  2. make a copy of (a computer file) especially for storage in another place as a security copy
    You'd better back up these files!
  3. become or cause to become obstructed
    The leaves clog our drains in the Fall
    The water pipe is backed up
  4. give moral or psychological support, aid, or courage to
    She supported him during the illness
    Her children always backed her up
  5. establish as valid or genuine
    Can you back up your claims?
Top Definitions Examples
Enhance Your English Writing Skills
Fix common errors and boost your confidence in every sentence.
Get started
for free
Linguix pencil

How To Use back up In A Sentence

  • I felt, in reading your unreproaching letter to her, as self-reproachful as anybody could with a great deal of innocence (in the way of the world) to fall back upon. The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2)
  • No one ever accused us of being over-rehearsed," Stephen Stills says at one point, shortly before he's shown tripping over a footlight on the stage and playing flat on his back while he rolls from side to side trying to get himself back up. Evan Handler: Find the Cost of Freedom (of Speech)
  • His offhand manner put my back up.
  • These people write reasonable, well-balanced letters, disclaim any belief in racialism, and back up everything they say with copious instances. As I Please
  • How about how the door of your car opens as you back up from the burnout to let burnout smoke escape the cockpit?
  • Then the piston moves back up to compress this fuel/air mixture.
  • Nemours showed him at once what use to make of the army under his orders, and having enfiladed his National Guard battalions, and placed his artillery in echelons, he formed his cavalry into hollow squares on the right and left of his line, flinging out a cloud of howitzers to fall back upon the main column. Burlesques
  • But still bankers in brokerage firms with giant bonus options think they can prop it back up. Times, Sunday Times
  • Uncle and aunt have moved back up north to have another go after her affair. Times, Sunday Times
  • The long-awaited opening will mark the triumphant end of a battle stretching back up to four years.
View all