How to Use backpedal in a Sentence

backpedal

verb
  • The outfielder backpedaled a few steps to catch the fly ball.
  • Hill backpedaled to the left side of the field and caught a pass from Turpin.
    Joe Buettner, ajc, 7 Oct. 2017
  • Later the White House seemed to backpedal a bit and talk up the dollar.
    Fortune, 10 Aug. 2019
  • Springer backpedaled to draw a bead on Ryan Braun's two-out fly ball in the fifth inning.
    Chandler Rome, Houston Chronicle, 4 Sep. 2019
  • And do not crack a smile as your sister-in-law wearily tries to backpedal.
    Judith Martin, Washington Post, 26 Aug. 2019
  • Back at the top of the order, Granderson aired a deep fly ball to right field forcing Hunter Pence to backpedal.
    Seth Berkman, New York Times, 29 Apr. 2016
  • Halsey, meanwhile, is in the midst of backpedaling on her own statements.
    Chelsea Stone, Teen Vogue, 23 June 2017
  • The officer backpedaled and warned us not to BBQ or set up tents on the sidewalk because that was against the law.
    Jolene Almendarez, The Enquirer, 29 June 2023
  • Garoppolo ended up in the open field ahead of Samuel and pushed Barr, who backpedaled and landed on the ground.
    Matt Kawahara, SFChronicle.com, 11 Jan. 2020
  • Moments later, Freese lofts a triple just beyond the reach of the backpedaling Cruz.
    Tyler Kepner, New York Times, 27 Oct. 2016
  • The two are similar in size and the ability to cover one-on-one, backpedal and turn on a dime.
    cleveland.com, 2 May 2018
  • With Lowry backpedaling and moving on defense, the contact is enough to draw the ire of the referee.
    Brian Sampson, Forbes, 28 Nov. 2023
  • Now to backpedal on my backpedaling: a lottery ticket costs $2.
    Jack Murtagh, Scientific American, 17 Nov. 2023
  • Malzahn backpedaled those comments when asked about them Wednesday, saying they were meant to be tongue-in-cheek.
    Tom Green, AL.com, 10 Jan. 2018
  • Brady, for example does at times backpedal just a tad during his drop-back.
    Conor Orr, SI.com, 16 Jan. 2018
  • Johnson held her follow through and backpedaled as the ball traveled its parabola path to the rim.
    Ben Baskin, SI.com, 31 Mar. 2018
  • Diggs had his eyes on Trubisky the entire time and simply backpedaled in the end zone, and the ball came directly to him.
    Brad Biggs, chicagotribune.com, 18 Dec. 2017
  • Mahinmi gathered the rebound and passed the ball to Wall, who dribbled forward and forced Payton to backpedal.
    Josh Robbins, OrlandoSentinel.com, 13 Jan. 2018
  • White charged at Jackson, who attempted to give him a Heisman-like stiff-arm and backpedaled.
    Andrew Lopez, NOLA.com, 13 Oct. 2017
  • Guns: The White House proposed arming teachers, while backpedaling on raising the age to buy guns.
    Brian Ries, CNN, 12 Mar. 2018
  • But of course, Williamson has backpedaled the decision already via Twitter.
    Elly Belle, refinery29.com, 3 Jan. 2020
  • However, the ink was barely dry on the law before the Supreme Court backpedaled on applying it.
    New York Times, 28 Oct. 2019
  • Freeze has kept an edge, but he's backpedaled to a more defensive stance since his infamous tweet.
    Pete Thamel, SI.com, 29 June 2016
  • In some cases, it could only be done if a child backpedaled while riding uphill.
    Dorian Smith-Garcia, Parents, 24 Aug. 2023
  • Trump is in Europe this week and has shown little willingness to backpedal on his threat to impose the tariffs.
    Damian Paletta, Washington Post, 6 June 2019
  • Dawkins backpedaled into the area where Lucas, the Blazers enforcer, was waiting.
    Special To The Oregonian, OregonLive.com, 6 June 2017
  • James backpedaled and looked toward his team’s bench with his tongue hanging out, Williamson trailing close behind.
    Los Angeles Times, 1 Mar. 2020
  • The Aggies finished with minus-1 rushing yards after the backpedaling first half.
    Brent Zwerneman, ExpressNews.com, 23 Nov. 2019
  • The president, on a steep learning curve, has started backpedaling on a big bang and talking about process, and Bolton has been curbed (for now).
    Trudy Rubin, Philly.com, 6 June 2018
  • Trump half-heartedly backpedaled on his threat on Tuesday.
    Steven Litt, cleveland, 12 Jan. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'backpedal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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