rear back

1. 1.

   rear backwards on its hind legs

   “the frightened horse reared back”

   Broaderrear
2. 2.

   start with anger or resentment or in protest

   Broaderstartle

Questions about rear back

What does rear back mean?

rear back means "rear backwards on its hind legs". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is rear back a common word?

rear back is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.