-
- To save this word, you'll need to log in.
back of
preposition
US, informal
: behind
… stood leaning against a parked car out back of the building …—Peter Goldman et al.
They now sit … just two games back of the Yankees in the wild card race.—Steve Buckley
Examples of back of in a Sentence
the equipment shed is a concrete structure back of the school
Recent Examples on the Web
Kathie panicked and ran to the back of the restaurant.
—Marisa Kwiatkowski, USA TODAY, 14 May 2024
The law was named after Matthew Shepard, a gay student who was tortured and murdered in Wyoming in October 1998, and James Byrd Jr., a Black man killed in 1998 by white supremacists who abducted him, beat him and dragged him by a chain from the back of a pickup truck.
—Bill Hutchinson, ABC News, 13 May 2024
With less than eight minutes remaining in OT, Borchardt found the back of the net for the series-clincher.
—Zach Welch, Kansas City Star, 13 May 2024
For an amphibious soul, the height of joy comes with underwater tracking: Foster taught himself to see tracks of mollusks in the sand atop the back of a stingray, or an octopus's predation marks on a shell.
—Barbara J. King, NPR, 13 May 2024
Michael Stuhlbarg, who starred with Buscemi in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, was hit in the back of his neck by a rock in March.
—Kimberly Nordyke, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 May 2024
The bike crashed into the back of a Toyota Tacoma and a Hyundai Sonata near North Second Street, Forster said.
—Caleb Lunetta, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 May 2024
And at the University of California, Berkeley, a small group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators began waving flags and chanting during commencement and were escorted to the back of the stadium, where they were joined by others, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
—CBS News, 12 May 2024
These include a white coating on the tongue, a dry mouth, or excess mucus entering the back of the throat from one's nose or sinuses - usually stemming from nasal irritation, allergies, or a bacterial infection.
—Daryl Austin, USA TODAY, 4 May 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'back of.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1694, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near back of
Cite this Entry
“Back of.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/back%20of. Accessed 28 May. 2024.
Kids Definition
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share