Forms: 1 on bæc; 2 a bec; 2–3 on bak, o bak; 2–5 a bak, abak; 4–8 a-back(e, abacke; 6– aback. [OE. on prep. bæc sb. = unto or in the rear, backward. The prep. and sb., long written separate, were at length treated as one word; already in 3 the prefix began to be dropped, leaving BACK as the ordinary modern form of the word, aback being confined chiefly to nautical language. Cf. adown and down, around and round, etc.]
1. Motion: in a direction backwards, to the rear, towards that which is behind; back. Fig. From the front, or scene of action, off, away, to a distance. To draw, go, come a-back: to retreat; to drive a-back: to repulse; to put a-back: to repel, reject.
c. 1000. Ags. Gospels, Matt. iv. 10. Gang þu sceocca on bæc! Ibid., John vi. 66. Maneʓa his learning-cnihtas cyrdon on-bæc, & ne eodun mid him.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 239. Mid al þan þe þer middenarde for his lufe werpeð abéc.
1297. R. Glouc., 131. So þat þe white was aboue, as þe folk y seye, And drof þe rede al abak out of þe put ney.
c. 1400. Apol. for Lollards, 56. He [Christ] turnid & seid to Peter, Go o bak after Me, Sathanas.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repressor, III. iii. 290. Certis this seiyng may be at fulle Putt Abak and be rebukid.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 117/2. O ye right noble knyghtes which ben comen to the victorye & now goo abacke! Ibid. (1490), Eneydos, xxiii. 87. The sterres also and all the fyrmamente she maketh to retorne abacke.
c. 1500. Partenay, 5080. Neuer put A-bake, manly was of myght.
c. 1505. Dunbar, Goldin Terge, xxi. Syne went abak, rebutit of the prey.
1552. Lyndesay, Tragedy, 134. Than was I put abak frome my purpose, And suddantlie caste in captyuitie.
1554. Interl. of Youth (in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, II. 6). Aback, fellows, and give me room.
c. 1596. King and Barkur, 46 (in Hazlitt’s E.P.P., I. 6). The tanner lokyd a bake tho, The heydes began to fall.
a. 1834. Coleridge, The Two Founts (Poems, 340). To shrink aback and cower upon his urn.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gr., VI. XV. V. 10. Alas, Belleisle had his accident in the Harz; and all went aback, from that time.
2. Rest, or resistance to motion: in a position to the rear, in that which is behind, in a backward position; in the rear, behind. Fig. Away from the front or scene of action, at a distance, aloof, in retirement. To hold aback, to restrain, hinder; to stand aback from, to stand aloof, to avoid, or eschew.
c. 1120. O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), anno 1110. And furðor nihtes syððan he ufor astah, he was ʓesewen on bæc on þæt norðwest gangende.
c. 1430. Lydgate, Bochas, I. ix. (1544 lf. 16 b). But aback winter can somer undermine And al his freshnes sodeinly decline.
c. 1525. Skelton, On Tyme, 22. And when tyme is, to put thyselfe in prease, And when tyme is, to holde thyself abacke.
1637. Rutherford, Letters, XCIV. (1862), I. 242. Keep yourself in the love of Christ and stand far aback from the pollutions of the world.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. I. 87. A temple fair We came to, set aback midst towering trees.
1878. Joaquin Miller, Songs of Italy, 122. Front and aback there is nothing but flood.
3. Naut. Said of the sails of a ship, when laid back against the mast, with the wind bearing against their front surfaces. Also, of the ship, when her sails are so laid.
1697. Jumper, in Lond. Gaz., mmmcccxv. 1. I braced my main topsails aback.
1762. Falconer, Shipwreck, ii. 427. Away there! lower the mizen yard on deck, He calls, and brace the foremost yards aback!
1790. R. Beatson, Nav. and Mil. Mem., II. 58. The Revenge was necessitated to throw her sails all aback.
1847. Ross, Voyage to South Pole, II. 217. We instantly hove all aback to diminish the violence of the shock.
Hence the nautical phrase To be taken aback, ‘when through a shift of wind or bad steerage, the wind comes in front of the square sails and lays them back against the masts, instantly staying the ship’s onward course and giving her stern way; an accident exceedingly dangerous in a strong gale.’ Sir John Richardson.
1754. Eeles, Let. 2, in Phil. Trans., XLIX. 144. If they luff up, they will be taken aback, and run the hazard of being dismasted.
1870. Daily News, Sept., 16. This proves to my mind that the Captain was taken as flat aback as could be by a squall striking her from starboard.
fig. Of persons. To take aback: to surprise or discomfit by a sudden and unlooked-for check.
1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, 21. The boy, in sea phrase, was taken all aback.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, 52. I don’t think I was ever so taken aback in all my life.
1878. Bosworth Smith, Carthage, 95. They were for the moment taken aback by the strange appearance of the vessels coming into battle with their masts left standing.
