pull back

1. 1.

   pull back or move away or backward

   “The enemy withdrew”

   “The limo pulled away from the curb”

   Synonymswithdrawretreatpull awaydraw backrecederetiremove back

   Broadertravel

   Narrowerfall backretrogradeback up
2. 2.

   use a surgical instrument to hold open (the edges of a wound or an organ)

   Synonymsretractdraw back

   Broaderpull
3. 3.

   move to a rearward position; pull towards the back

   “Pull back your arms!”

   Broaderpull
4. 4.

   stretch back a bowstring (on an archer's bow)

   “The archers were drawing their bows”

   Synonymsdraw

   Broaderstretch
5. 5.

   make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity

   “We'll have to crawfish out from meeting with him”

   “He backed out of his earlier promise”

   “The aggressive investment company pulled in its horns”

   Synonymsretreatback outback awaycrawfishcrawfish outpull in one's hornswithdraw

Questions about pull back

What does pull back mean?

pull back means "pull back or move away or backward". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for pull back?

Close synonyms include withdraw, retreat, pull away, draw back, recede. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is pull back a common word?

pull back is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.