beat back
verb
beat back; beaten back or beat back; beating back; beats back
: to force (someone) to go back or to retreat by fighting
Our troops were beaten back by enemy forces.
Police used batons to beat the protesters back.
Examples of beat back in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Davis, who beat back cancer for nearly a dozen years while producing policy-changing dispatches before a tumor reappeared this spring, died at the East Campus Medical Center at UC San Diego Health early Wednesday.
—
Jeff McDonald,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
1 July 2026
But last night, both DeGette and 74-year-old John Hickenlooper, who was able to beat back a challenge to his Senate seat, seemed to have underappreciated the Democratic base’s desire for generational and political change.
—
Elaine Godfrey,
The Atlantic,
1 July 2026
On Thursday, the Interior Department was claiming to have beat back the toxic blooms — while doing a drive-by trashing of Barack Obama to please the boss.
—
Maureen Dowd,
Mercury News,
23 June 2026
Rockefeller money founded the University of Chicago and the public-health campaigns that beat back disease; the Mellon fortune built the National Gallery.
—
Douglas P. McCormick,
Fortune,
23 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for beat back
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Jeff McDonald,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
1 July 2026
But last night, both DeGette and 74-year-old John Hickenlooper, who was able to beat back a challenge to his Senate seat, seemed to have underappreciated the Democratic base’s desire for generational and political change.
—
Elaine Godfrey,
The Atlantic,
1 July 2026
On Thursday, the Interior Department was claiming to have beat back the toxic blooms — while doing a drive-by trashing of Barack Obama to please the boss.
—
Maureen Dowd,
Mercury News,
23 June 2026
Rockefeller money founded the University of Chicago and the public-health campaigns that beat back disease; the Mellon fortune built the National Gallery.
—
Douglas P. McCormick,
Fortune,
23 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for beat back
Cite this Entry
“Beat back.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beat%20back. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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