"on someone's back" meaning in English

See on someone's back in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} on someone's back, {{en-PP}} on someone's back
  1. (informal) Nagging or harassing someone. Tags: informal
    Sense id: en-on_someone's_back-en-prep_phrase-OEndjBhv Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 70 30 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 86 14 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 91 9
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, someone's, back. Related terms: on one's back, on the back of
    Sense id: en-on_someone's_back-en-prep_phrase-1Mt8L-la
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "on someone's back",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "on someone's back",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "70 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "86 14",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "91 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              17,
              27
            ]
          ],
          "text": "My mother's been on my back about getting a job.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Nagging or harassing someone."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_someone's_back-en-prep_phrase-OEndjBhv",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Nagging or harassing someone."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, someone's, back."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_someone's_back-en-prep_phrase-1Mt8L-la",
      "links": [
        [
          "on",
          "on#English"
        ],
        [
          "someone's",
          "someone's#English"
        ],
        [
          "back",
          "back#English"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "word": "on one's back"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "word": "on the back of"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "on someone's back"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "on someone's back",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "on someone's back",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "on one's back"
    },
    {
      "word": "on the back of"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              17,
              27
            ]
          ],
          "text": "My mother's been on my back about getting a job.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Nagging or harassing someone."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Nagging or harassing someone."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, someone's, back."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "on",
          "on#English"
        ],
        [
          "someone's",
          "someone's#English"
        ],
        [
          "back",
          "back#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "on someone's back"
}

Download raw JSONL data for on someone's back meaning in English (1.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-29 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-20 using wiktextract (4eaa824 and ea19a0a). 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.