pull back

See also: pullback and pull-back

English

Verb

pull back (third-person singular simple present pulls back, present participle pulling back, simple past and past participle pulled back)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pull,‎ back.
   • 1994, Linda Winstead, Guardian Angel:

     Her nightgown was thin, and she felt chilly as she stepped across the hall, pulling back the curtain that shielded Gabriel's room.

   • 2002, Dennis J. Barton, Cola Wars:

     What's more, I pull back the sheets to take a quick but suspicious gander at Bunny, and she's wearing a pair of my briefs.

   • 2006, Ruth K. Westheimer, Pierre A. Lehu, Sex for Dummies:

     An uncircumcised man should always take special precautions when bathing to pull back the foreskin and clean carefully around the glans.

   • 2025 July 23, Richard Wilcock, “A new dawn for the Electrostars”, in RAIL, number 1040, page 27:

     Typically, this meant that the teams were turning around two sets a week, with a train rolling into the depot on a Sunday for what Hinze describes as a "big strip-out". This would pull the carriages back almost to the bare bones.

2. To retreat.
   • 2010, Africasia, Birao is a garrison town near the border with Chad and Sudan:

     Central African armed forces (FACA) troops were forced to pull back from the town and were planning an operation to retake it, the source said.

3. (transitive, sports) To pass (the ball) into a position further from the attacking goal line.
   • December 1 2010, Paul Fletcher, BBC News, Ipswich 1-0 West Brom

     Jason Scotland should have scored after Tamas advanced purposefully down the right before pulling the ball back into the path of his team-mate, who shot straight at Myhill.

4. (transitive, sports) To score when the team is losing.
   • Feb 19 2007, Al-Jazeera, Stylish Sevilla pull level with faltering Barcelona

     Ronaldinho pulled back a goal for Barca in injury time with a classy free-kick, but it was clearly too little too late to prevent their third Liga defeat.

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