to move back and forth
10
2.8
- phrasal verb
:
moverse de un lado a otro
- As the pendulum swings, it moves back and forth in a steady rhythm.
- people move back and forth
It makes charged particles move back and forth in water.
- It makes charged particles move back and forth in water.
- It causes the base to move back and forth to vibrate.
- But on this seesaw sits us right and we can move back and forth across this seesaw.
- It's a permeable membrane and many people move back and forth across it.
- You can control basically what traffic moves back and forth.
- Why is that bird moving back and forth between those two flowers the entire time I was here?
- But but a lot of it is, you know, looking into this expanse of waves moving back and forth, reflecting the sky, reflecting other things.
- This idea of moving back and forth across an image, breaking it down into lines.
- There's networks of priests that they use that are moving back and forth, secret priests, priests that are moving stuff back and forth.
Examples
-
We heard about the problem in Canada; people are moving back and forth.
Academic text (1999) -
It's a tiny little needle that just moves back and forth a bunch, OK?
-
Why is that bird moving back and forth between those two flowers the entire time I was here?
-
These red lights keep moving back and forth.
-
The man still stood on the porch watching the car, his head moving back and forth.
Fiction book (1994) -
The old guy with the violin moves back and forth behind Walker, smiling as he plays.
Fiction book (1998) -
It makes charged particles move back and forth in water.
-
It's a permeable membrane and many people move back and forth across it.
-
Around the perimeter of the next room, men in white coats moved back and forth, exchanging worried comments.
Fiction book (1992) -
Angela drives, squinting through the windshield as the wipers move back and forth.
Fiction book (1999)
Antonyms
How Often
91
2.8
8
6.5
109
1.0
10
2.8
77
2.4
40
3.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to move first in one direction and then in the opposite direction repeatedly' is directly and compositionally derived from 'move' (motion) combined with the directional pair 'back' and 'forth'; the conjunction simply links the two opposite directions. This motion + directional adverb pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows a standard English construction, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Move back and forth comes from the simple picture of a swing or a clock pendulum that goes back and then forth again and again. That's why it means 'to move first one way and then the other repeatedly'.