What is "to go back on"

Go \Go\, v. i. [imp. Went (w[e^]nt); p. p. Gone (g[o^]n; 115); p. pr. & vb. n. Going. Went comes from the AS, wendan. See Wend, v. i.] [OE. gan, gon, AS. g[=a]n, akin to D. gaan, G. gehn, gehen, OHG. g[=e]n, g[=a]n, SW. g[*a], Dan. gaae; cf. Gr. kicha`nai to reach, overtake, Skr. h[=a] to go, AS. gangan, and E. gang. The past tense in AS., eode, is from the root i to go, as is also Goth. iddja went. [root]47a. Cf. Gang, v. i., Wend.]

1. To pass from one place to another; to be in motion; to be in a state not motionless or at rest; to proceed; to advance; to make progress; -- used, in various applications, of the movement of both animate and inanimate beings, by whatever means, and also of the movements of the mind; also figuratively applied.

2. To move upon the feet, or step by step; to walk; also, to walk step by step, or leisurely.

   Note: In old writers go is much used as opposed to run, or ride. ``Whereso I go or ride.''
   --Chaucer.

   You know that love Will creep in service where it can not go.
   --Shak.

   Thou must run to him; for thou hast staid so long that going will scarce serve the turn.
   --Shak.

   He fell from running to going, and from going to clambering upon his hands and his knees.
   --Bunyan.

   Note: In Chaucer go is used frequently with the pronoun in the objective used reflexively; as, he goeth him home.

3. To be passed on fron one to another; to pass; to circulate; hence, with for, to have currency; to be taken, accepted, or regarded.

   The man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.
   --1 Sa. xvii. 12.

   [The money] should go according to its true value.
   --Locke.

4. To proceed or happen in a given manner; to fare; to move on or be carried on; to have course; to come to an issue or result; to succeed; to turn out.

   How goes the night, boy ?
   --Shak.

   I think, as the world goes, he was a good sort of man enough.
   --Arbuthnot.

   Whether the cause goes for me or against me, you must pay me the reward.
   --I Watts.

5. To proceed or tend toward a result, consequence, or product; to tend; to conduce; to be an ingredient; to avail; to apply; to contribute; -- often with the infinitive; as, this goes to show.

   Against right reason all your counsels go.
   --Dryden.

   To master the foul flend there goeth some complement knowledge of theology.
   --Sir W. Scott.

6. To apply one's self; to set one's self; to undertake.

   Seeing himself confronted by so many, like a resolute orator, he went not to denial, but to justify his cruel falsehood.
   --Sir P. Sidney.

   Note: Go, in this sense, is often used in the present participle with the auxiliary verb to be, before an infinitive, to express a future of intention, or to denote design; as, I was going to say; I am going to begin harvest.

7. To proceed by a mental operation; to pass in mind or by an act of the memory or imagination; -- generally with over or through.

   By going over all these particulars, you may receive some tolerable satisfaction about this great subject.
   --South.

8. To be with young; to be pregnant; to gestate.

   The fruit she goes with, I pray for heartily, that it may find Good time, and live.
   --Shak.

9. To move from the person speaking, or from the point whence the action is contemplated; to pass away; to leave; to depart; -- in opposition to stay and come.

   I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God; . . . only ye shall not go very far away.
   --Ex. viii. 28.

10. To pass away; to depart forever; to be lost or ruined; to perish; to decline; to decease; to die.

    By Saint George, he's gone! That spear wound hath our master sped.
    --Sir W. Scott.

11. To reach; to extend; to lead; as, a line goes across the street; his land goes to the river; this road goes to New York.

    His amorous expressions go no further than virtue may allow.
    --Dryden.

12. To have recourse; to resort; as, to go to law. Note: Go is used, in combination with many prepositions and adverbs, to denote motion of the kind indicated by the preposition or adverb, in which, and not in the verb, lies the principal force of the expression; as, to go against to go into, to go out, to go aside, to go astray, etc. Go to, come; move; go away; -- a phrase of exclamation, serious or ironical. To go a-begging, not to be in demand; to be undesired. To go about.

    1. To set about; to enter upon a scheme of action; to undertake. ``They went about to slay him.''
       --Acts ix. 29.

       They never go about . . . to hide or palliate their vices.
       --Swift.

    2. (Naut.) To tack; to turn the head of a ship; to wear. To go abraod.

       1. To go to a foreign country.

       2. To go out of doors.

    3. To become public; to be published or disclosed; to be current. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren. --John xxi. 23. To go against.

       1. To march against; to attack.

       2. To be in opposition to; to be disagreeable to. To go ahead.

          1. To go in advance.

          2. To go on; to make progress; to proceed. To go and come. See To come and go, under Come. To go aside.

             1. To withdraw; to retire.

                He . . . went aside privately into a desert place.
                --Luke. ix. 10.

             2. To go from what is right; to err. --Num. v. 29. To go back on.

                1. To retrace (one's path or footsteps).

                2. To abandon; to turn against; to betray. [Slang, U. S.] To go below (Naut), to go below deck. To go between, to interpose or mediate between; to be a secret agent between parties; in a bad sense, to pander. To go beyond. See under Beyond. To go by, to pass away unnoticed; to omit. To go by the board (Naut.), to fall or be carried overboard; as, the mast went by the board. To go down.

                   1. To descend.

                   2. To go below the horizon; as, the sun has gone down.

       3. To sink; to founder; -- said of ships, etc.

    4. To be swallowed; -- used literally or figuratively. Nothing so ridiculous, . . . but it goes down whole with him for truth. --L' Estrange. To go far.

       1. To go to a distance.

       2. To have much weight or influence. To go for.

          1. To go in quest of.

          2. To represent; to pass for.

       3. To favor; to advocate.

       4. To attack; to assault. [Low]

    5. To sell for; to be parted with for (a price). To go for nothing, to be parted with for no compensation or result; to have no value, efficacy, or influence; to count for nothing. To go forth.

       1. To depart from a place.

       2. To be divulged or made generally known; to emanate. The law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. --Micah iv. 2. To go hard with, to trouble, pain, or endanger. To go in, to engage in; to take part. [Colloq.] To go in and out, to do the business of life; to live; to have free access. --John x. 9. To go in for. [Colloq.]

          1. To go for; to favor or advocate (a candidate, a measure, etc.).

          2. To seek to acquire or attain to (wealth, honor, preferment, etc.)

       3. To complete for (a reward, election, etc.).

       4. To make the object of one's labors, studies, etc. He was as ready to go in for statistics as for anything else. --Dickens. To go in to or To go in unto.

          1. To enter the presence of.
             --Esther iv. 16.

          2. To have sexual intercourse with. [Script.] To go into.

             1. To speak of, investigate, or discuss (a question, subject, etc.).

             2. To participate in (a war, a business, etc.). To go large. (Naut) See under Large. To go off.

                1. To go away; to depart.

                   The leaders . . . will not go off until they hear you.
                   --Shak.

                2. To cease; to intermit; as, this sickness went off.

          3. To die.
             --Shak.

          4. To explode or be discharged; -- said of gunpowder, of a gun, a mine, etc.

       5. To find a purchaser; to be sold or disposed of.

    6. To pass off; to take place; to be accomplished. The wedding went off much as such affairs do. --Mrs. Caskell. To go on.

       1. To proceed; to advance further; to continue; as, to go on reading.

       2. To be put or drawn on; to fit over; as, the coat will not go on. To go all fours, to correspond exactly, point for point. It is not easy to make a simile go on all fours. --Macaulay. To go out.

          1. To issue forth from a place.

          2. To go abroad; to make an excursion or expedition.

             There are other men fitter to go out than I.
             --Shak.

             What went ye out for to see ?
             --Matt. xi. 7, 8, 9.

       3. To become diffused, divulged, or spread abroad, as news, fame etc.

       4. To expire; to die; to cease; to come to an end; as, the light has gone out. Life itself goes out at thy displeasure. --Addison. To go over.

          1. To traverse; to cross, as a river, boundary, etc.; to change sides.

             I must not go over Jordan.
             --Deut. iv. 22.

             Let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan.
             --Deut. iii. 25.

             Ishmael . . . departed to go over to the Ammonites.
             --Jer. xli. 10.

          2. To read, or study; to examine; to review; as, to go over one's accounts.

             If we go over the laws of Christianity, we shall find that . . . they enjoin the same thing.
             --Tillotson.

          3. To transcend; to surpass.

          4. To be postponed; as, the bill went over for the session.

       5. (Chem.) To be converted (into a specified substance or material); as, monoclinic sulphur goes over into orthorhombic, by standing; sucrose goes over into dextrose and levulose. To go through.

          1. To accomplish; as, to go through a work.

          2. To suffer; to endure to the end; as, to go through a surgical operation or a tedious illness.

          3. To spend completely; to exhaust, as a fortune.

          4. To strip or despoil (one) of his property. [Slang]

          5. To botch or bungle a business. [Scot.] To go through with, to perform, as a calculation, to the end; to complete. To go to ground.

             1. To escape into a hole; -- said of a hunted fox.

             2. To fall in battle. To go to naught (Colloq.), to prove abortive, or unavailling. To go under.

                1. To set; -- said of the sun.

                2. To be known or recognized by (a name, title, etc.).

             3. To be overwhelmed, submerged, or defeated; to perish; to succumb. To go up, to come to nothing; to prove abortive; to fail. To go upon, to act upon, as a foundation or hypothesis. To go with.

                1. To accompany.

                2. To coincide or agree with.

                3. To suit; to harmonize with. To go well with, To go ill with, To go hard with, to affect (one) in such manner. To go without, to be, or to remain, destitute of. To go wrong.

                   1. To take a wrong road or direction; to wander or stray.

                   2. To depart from virtue.

                   3. To happen unfortunately; to unexpectedly cause a mishap or failure.

             4. To miss success; to fail.

                To let go, to allow to depart; to quit one's hold; to release.

Back \Back\, adv. [Shortened from aback.]

1. In, to, or toward, the rear; as, to stand back; to step back.

2. To the place from which one came; to the place or person from which something is taken or derived; as, to go back for something left behind; to go back to one's native place; to put a book back after reading it.

3. To a former state, condition, or station; as, to go back to private life; to go back to barbarism.

4. (Of time) In times past; ago. ``Sixty or seventy years back.''
   --Gladstone.

5. Away from contact; by reverse movement.

   The angel of the Lord . . . came, and rolled back the stone from the door.
   --Matt. xxviii. 2.

6. In concealment or reserve; in one's own possession; as, to keep back the truth; to keep back part of the money due to another.

7. In a state of restraint or hindrance.

   The Lord hath kept thee back from honor.
   --Numb. xxiv. 11.

8. In return, repayment, or requital.

   What have I to give you back?
   --Shak.

9. In withdrawal from a statement, promise, or undertaking; as, he took back the offensive words.

10. In arrear; as, to be back in one's rent. [Colloq.]

    Back and forth, backwards and forwards; to and fro.

    To go back on, to turn back from; to abandon; to betray; as, to go back on a friend; to go back on one's professions. [Colloq.]