"take a step back" meaning in English

See take a step back in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: takes a step back [present, singular, third-person], taking a step back [participle, present], took a step back [past], taken a step back [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|take<,,took,taken> a step back}} take a step back (third-person singular simple present takes a step back, present participle taking a step back, simple past took a step back, past participle taken a step back)
  1. (figuratively) To withdraw temporarily from a situation in order to evaluate it; to cease one's course of action and take a moment to reflect on it; to try and gain some perspective. Tags: figuratively Related terms: step back Translations (Translations): ottaa askel kauemmaksi (Finnish), ottaa askel kauemmas (Finnish), prendre du recul (French), prendre de la distance (French), prendre de la hauteur (French), robić krok w tył [imperfective] (Polish), zrobić krok w tył [perfective] (Polish), dar un paso atrás (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-take_a_step_back-en-verb-iDYPir2s Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for take a step back meaning in English (2.2kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "takes a step back",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taking a step back",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "took a step back",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taken a step back",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "take<,,took,taken> a step back"
      },
      "expansion": "take a step back (third-person singular simple present takes a step back, present participle taking a step back, simple past took a step back, past participle taken a step back)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To withdraw temporarily from a situation in order to evaluate it; to cease one's course of action and take a moment to reflect on it; to try and gain some perspective."
      ],
      "id": "en-take_a_step_back-en-verb-iDYPir2s",
      "links": [
        [
          "withdraw",
          "withdraw"
        ],
        [
          "evaluate",
          "evaluate"
        ],
        [
          "course of action",
          "course of action"
        ],
        [
          "perspective",
          "perspective"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) To withdraw temporarily from a situation in order to evaluate it; to cease one's course of action and take a moment to reflect on it; to try and gain some perspective."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "step back"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "ottaa askel kauemmaksi"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "ottaa askel kauemmas"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "prendre du recul"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "prendre de la distance"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "prendre de la hauteur"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "robić krok w tył"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "perfective"
          ],
          "word": "zrobić krok w tył"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "dar un paso atrás"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "take a step back"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "takes a step back",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taking a step back",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "took a step back",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taken a step back",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "take<,,took,taken> a step back"
      },
      "expansion": "take a step back (third-person singular simple present takes a step back, present participle taking a step back, simple past took a step back, past participle taken a step back)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "step back"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English verbs",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To withdraw temporarily from a situation in order to evaluate it; to cease one's course of action and take a moment to reflect on it; to try and gain some perspective."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "withdraw",
          "withdraw"
        ],
        [
          "evaluate",
          "evaluate"
        ],
        [
          "course of action",
          "course of action"
        ],
        [
          "perspective",
          "perspective"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) To withdraw temporarily from a situation in order to evaluate it; to cease one's course of action and take a moment to reflect on it; to try and gain some perspective."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "ottaa askel kauemmaksi"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "ottaa askel kauemmas"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "prendre du recul"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "prendre de la distance"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "prendre de la hauteur"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "robić krok w tył"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "perfective"
      ],
      "word": "zrobić krok w tył"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "dar un paso atrás"
    }
  ],
  "word": "take a step back"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 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.

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.