out back
112
2.3
- adverb
- Informal
- 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
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Watch on YouTubeHow did you find your way out back?
- How did you find your way out back?
Examples
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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.
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I sit out back and I write stuff.
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Your friend is out back.
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Next scene we're out back at the backyard of a small house.
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We rolled the van to his small lot out back and started talking.
Fiction book (1996) -
But my parents keep a snowmobile out back.
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And the old owners even left us a brand-new swing set out back.
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There's a shed out back he uses as his man cave.
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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'.