go back
phrasal verb
went back; gone back; going back; goes back
1
: to return to a place
I forgot my purse and had to go back for it.
After college she went back home.
Go back inside! You'll catch cold.
2
: to return to doing something
I turned off the alarm and went back to sleep.
He waved hello, then went right back to work.
She went back to eating her dinner.
3
: to have existed for a particular amount of time or since a particular period
These ruins go back hundreds of years.
4
: to have known each other for an amount of time
We go back 30 years.
He and I go back a long way.
5
: to think or talk about something from the past
To fully understand the issues, we have to go back a few years.
Examples of go back in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Okay, now, going back to our focus area: AI agents.
—
Dhiraj Bhat, Forbes, 4 Mar. 2025
In the last trade war, around 80% of the money the U.S. government took in from tariffs on Chinese imports went back to paying farmers who were hurt by retaliatory tariffs, Busch says.
—Alana Semuels, TIME, 4 Mar. 2025
The records go back to the establishment of the Border Patrol a century ago and there are multiple years where monthly encounters were significantly lower.
—Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 4 Mar. 2025
Amazon had bought a minority stake in LoveFilm in 2008, making his association with the tech giant go back even further.
—Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 3 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for go back
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Dhiraj Bhat, Forbes, 4 Mar. 2025
In the last trade war, around 80% of the money the U.S. government took in from tariffs on Chinese imports went back to paying farmers who were hurt by retaliatory tariffs, Busch says.
—Alana Semuels, TIME, 4 Mar. 2025
The records go back to the establishment of the Border Patrol a century ago and there are multiple years where monthly encounters were significantly lower.
—Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 4 Mar. 2025
Amazon had bought a minority stake in LoveFilm in 2008, making his association with the tech giant go back even further.
—Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 3 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for go back
Cite this Entry
“Go back.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/go%20back. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
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