to and fro
8
3.4
- idiom
:
de un lado a otro
- The children ran to and fro in the park, playing tag and laughing.
- walking to and fro
- running to and fro
I pass my hands soothingly to and fro a few inches from them.
- I pass my hands soothingly to and fro a few inches from them.
- The keel began to sway to and fro, and they were carried round and round.
- Pure matter, he says, as a listless, aimless movement to and fro within itself.
- It's making good mythical morning being at the tour of mythicality or traveling to and fro across the country.
- You're not just a ship without a sail, without a rudder, getting blown everywhere to and fro.
- So maybe the other cells nearby that support the neurons and feed them and send chemicals to and fro around there have something to do with it?
- Already, when I'd watched them, they were irrevocably doomed, dying and rotting even as they went to and fro.
Examples
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Hench men on long ladders clambered with inexhaustible agility to and fro, depositing fresh stacks of money somewhere high above in the walls.
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Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Fiction book (1995) -
I got to drive all of the cars to and fro from the lot.
Blog text (14) -
And they, they went to and fro from Kansas City all the time.
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Along those improved roads were improved regular carrier services, delivering goods to and fro throughout the Kingdom.
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He went to and fro between them.
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Big engines will dig big ditches, and thousands of people will be running to and fro.
Academic text (2007) -
And the raven went forth, and flew to and fro.
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The waitresses scurried to and fro in their caps and frilly aprons.
Fiction book (1994) -
Outside, the afternoon skateboarders in their SURF NOIR shirts rumbled to and fro on the corrugated concrete of the beach road.
Fiction book (2000)
Synonyms
374
2.0
Moving one way and then the other again and again
7
3.2
To move one way and then the other way again and again
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'moving back and forth' is directly built from contrasting motion particles 'to' and 'fro' (toward and away); this composition transparently conveys alternating motion. Although 'fro' is somewhat archaic in isolation, the pattern 'to and fro' is semantically predictable and cross-linguistically parallels common 'back-and-forth' constructions, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer the meaning.
Etymology
The phrase to and fro comes from old words for movement: to meant 'towards' and fro meant 'away'. Picture walking one way and then back the other, and you have the image — that's why it means 'moving back and forth'.