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row back - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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

  1. (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.

row back (plural row backs)

  1. Alternative form of row-back