as in backed off
to break a promise or agreement
she backed out on her offer to help with the wedding planning
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Recent Examples of backed out
On Thursday, in a unanimous vote, the Kansas City City Council voted to do away with the 130-foot height restriction on the parcel where a new Nordstrom department store had once been planned, before the company backed out in 2022.
—
Eric Adler, Kansas City Star, 12 Sep. 2025
Quintana said some organizations and companies backed out of sponsorships or being part of the march this year.
—Shannon Tyler, Idaho Statesman, 6 Sep. 2025
By the time Sega backed out of the hardware race post-Dreamcast, Shinobi mostly limped on with a couple of 3D entries for PlayStation and Nintendo platforms before fading into obscurity.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 3 Sep. 2025
Eight selective colleges signed on last spring to accept Dialogues portfolios as part of a pilot project, but two of them — Vanderbilt University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — backed out in July.
—Tyler Kingkade, NBC news, 28 Aug. 2025
Phoenix has backed out of a tentative settlement with Nubia Rodriguez, the woman wrongly charged in the 2019 traffic death of a Phoenix police officer.
—Lorenzino Estrada, AZCentral.com, 18 Aug. 2025
The company backed out in 2013, citing poor market conditions.
—Tony Schick, ProPublica, 14 Aug. 2025
Unfortunately, the deal fell through when a local brewery slated to occupy the space had a change of plans and backed out.
—Keith Pandolfi, The Enquirer, 14 Aug. 2025
Sources told the entertainment news outlet the buyer was in escrow to buy the house once before but backed out at the last minute.
—Wendy Bowman, Robb Report, 12 Aug. 2025
Eric Adler, Kansas City Star, 12 Sep. 2025
Quintana said some organizations and companies backed out of sponsorships or being part of the march this year.
—Shannon Tyler, Idaho Statesman, 6 Sep. 2025
By the time Sega backed out of the hardware race post-Dreamcast, Shinobi mostly limped on with a couple of 3D entries for PlayStation and Nintendo platforms before fading into obscurity.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 3 Sep. 2025
Eight selective colleges signed on last spring to accept Dialogues portfolios as part of a pilot project, but two of them — Vanderbilt University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — backed out in July.
—Tyler Kingkade, NBC news, 28 Aug. 2025
Phoenix has backed out of a tentative settlement with Nubia Rodriguez, the woman wrongly charged in the 2019 traffic death of a Phoenix police officer.
—Lorenzino Estrada, AZCentral.com, 18 Aug. 2025
The company backed out in 2013, citing poor market conditions.
—Tony Schick, ProPublica, 14 Aug. 2025
Unfortunately, the deal fell through when a local brewery slated to occupy the space had a change of plans and backed out.
—Keith Pandolfi, The Enquirer, 14 Aug. 2025
Sources told the entertainment news outlet the buyer was in escrow to buy the house once before but backed out at the last minute.
—Wendy Bowman, Robb Report, 12 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for backed out
Verb
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Microsoft backed off on almost all of Windows 8’s design decisions in the following years after the dramatic UI shift proved unpopular with traditional mouse-and-keyboard users, but touchscreen PCs like Microsoft’s Surface lineup have persisted even as the software has changed.—
Andrew Cunningham,
ArsTechnica,
17 Sep. 2025
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Trump threatened earlier this year to fire Powell, but eventually backed off after his advisers warned him that doing so could spark extreme volatility in financial markets, CNN previously reported.—
Bryan Mena,
CNN Money,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
The agency backed down within two months.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
18 Sep. 2025
-
Eventually, the White House and the Treasury backed down.—
John Cassidy,
New Yorker,
15 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Backed out.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/backed%20out. Accessed 20 Sep. 2025.
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