See back to the wall in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for back to the wall meaning in English (3.7kB)
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "backs to the wall",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "backs to the wall"
},
"expansion": "back to the wall (plural backs to the wall)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1901, Frank Norris, chapter 8, in The Octopus",
"text": "From this place—so he told himself—had emanated that policy of extortion, oppression and injustice that little by little had shouldered the ranchers from their rights, till, their backs to the wall, exasperated and despairing they had turned and fought and died.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1910, Edith Wharton, “The Legend”, in Tales of Men and Ghosts",
"text": "Bernald felt that his extreme docility in such matters was proportioned to the force of resistance which, for nearly half a life-time, had kept him, with his back to the wall, fighting alone against the powers of darkness.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2006 January 14, Bobby Ghosh, “Why Iran Won't Back Down”, in Time",
"text": "His back to the wall, Ahmedinajad resorted to the tactic favored by cornered politicians everywhere: distract attention from yourself by pointing to a bogeyman.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2016 May 22, Phil McNulty, “Crystal Palace 1-2 Manchester United”, in BBC",
"text": "The England international may not have been at his best but it was his intervention when United had their backs to the wall and trailed that dragged them back into a cup final they were in danger of losing.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A very difficult situation with no beneficial options available for action."
],
"id": "en-back_to_the_wall-en-noun-EP1vtm9d",
"links": [
[
"difficult",
"difficult"
],
[
"situation",
"situation"
],
[
"options",
"option"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A very difficult situation with no beneficial options available for action."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "go to the wall"
},
{
"word": "retreat to the wall"
},
{
"word": "up against the wall"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "med ryggen mod muren"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "selkä seinää vasten"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "être dos au mur"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "mit dem Rücken zur Wand"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "spalle al muro"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "med ryggen mot veggen"
},
{
"code": "nn",
"lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "med ryggen mot veggen"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "przyparty do muru"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "plecami do ściany"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "pod ścianą"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "kuyruğu kapana kısılmak"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-back to the wall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/95/En-au-back_to_the_wall.ogg/En-au-back_to_the_wall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/En-au-back_to_the_wall.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "back to the wall"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "backs to the wall",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "backs to the wall"
},
"expansion": "back to the wall (plural backs to the wall)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "go to the wall"
},
{
"word": "retreat to the wall"
},
{
"word": "up against the wall"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1901, Frank Norris, chapter 8, in The Octopus",
"text": "From this place—so he told himself—had emanated that policy of extortion, oppression and injustice that little by little had shouldered the ranchers from their rights, till, their backs to the wall, exasperated and despairing they had turned and fought and died.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1910, Edith Wharton, “The Legend”, in Tales of Men and Ghosts",
"text": "Bernald felt that his extreme docility in such matters was proportioned to the force of resistance which, for nearly half a life-time, had kept him, with his back to the wall, fighting alone against the powers of darkness.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2006 January 14, Bobby Ghosh, “Why Iran Won't Back Down”, in Time",
"text": "His back to the wall, Ahmedinajad resorted to the tactic favored by cornered politicians everywhere: distract attention from yourself by pointing to a bogeyman.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2016 May 22, Phil McNulty, “Crystal Palace 1-2 Manchester United”, in BBC",
"text": "The England international may not have been at his best but it was his intervention when United had their backs to the wall and trailed that dragged them back into a cup final they were in danger of losing.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A very difficult situation with no beneficial options available for action."
],
"links": [
[
"difficult",
"difficult"
],
[
"situation",
"situation"
],
[
"options",
"option"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A very difficult situation with no beneficial options available for action."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-back to the wall.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/95/En-au-back_to_the_wall.ogg/En-au-back_to_the_wall.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/En-au-back_to_the_wall.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "med ryggen mod muren"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "selkä seinää vasten"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "être dos au mur"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "mit dem Rücken zur Wand"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "spalle al muro"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "med ryggen mot veggen"
},
{
"code": "nn",
"lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "med ryggen mot veggen"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "przyparty do muru"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "plecami do ściany"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "pod ścianą"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "very difficult situation",
"word": "kuyruğu kapana kısılmak"
}
],
"word": "back to the wall"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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