row back

See also: row-back

English

Pronunciation

Audio (General Australian): (file)

Verb

row back (third-person singular simple present rows back, present participle rowing back, simple past and past participle rowed back)

(UK, idiomatic) To change or revise a previous opinion or decision.
- 2013 January 19, Paul Harris, “Lance Armstrong faces multi-million dollar legal challenges after confession”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:
  Indeed, part of the problem was that Armstrong was rowing back on so much previous behaviour and years of aggressive lambasting of reporters, officials and team-mates who had claimed he was doping. "I don't forgive Lance Armstrong, who lied to me in two interviews. And I suspect most of America won't, either," Kurtz wrote.
- 2022 October 5, “Network News: Private sector's role in a publicly-owned railway”, in RAIL, number 967, page 16:
  Labour has rowed back from a plan for new rolling stock to be procured and owned in the public sector - with the party's rail spokesman saying it is not a priority.
- 2023 October 10, Senay Boztas, “Frans Timmermans urges European left to unite against right’s climate backlash”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:
  Speaking to the Guardian in one of his first campaign interviews, Timmermans said the UK government was one of the countries rowing back on green pledges.

Derived terms

row-back

Noun

row back (plural row backs)

Alternative form of row-back

Anagrams

back row, backrow