out back
112
2.3
- adverb
- Informal
:
en el patio trasero
- I strung up a clothesline out back, hooked a leash on it, and harnessed him up to the leash.
- go out back
- sit out back
- garden out back
How did you find your way out back?
- How did you find your way out back?
Examples
-
Maybe we'll clean that thing out back up and have a barbecue next weekend.
Fiction book (1996) -
I found my bicycle out back behind the garage.
-
I sit out back and I write stuff.
-
Your friend is out back.
-
Next scene we're out back at the backyard of a small house.
-
We rolled the van to his small lot out back and started talking.
Fiction book (1996) -
But my parents keep a snowmobile out back.
-
And the old owners even left us a brand-new swing set out back.
-
There's a shed out back he uses as his man cave.
-
There was a stately brick carriage house out back behind carefully groomed garden paths.
Fiction book (1994)
Synonyms
80
1.0
In the open air, not inside a building
1
3.2
Outside in the open air, not inside a building
1
3.2
The open air away from buildings
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'at the rear part of a building/outdoors' is directly and transparently composed from 'out' (outside) + 'back' (rear), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the location meaning. This is a straightforward locative combination following common English patterns (and parallels in many languages), making the phrase immediately comprehensible despite its colloquial use.
Etymology
Out back comes from a simple image: something is out, that is outside, at the back of a house, like a garden, patio, or the bins behind the building. So, when people say out back they mean 'at the rear part of a building, usually outside'.