to step back
101
3.6
- phrasal verb
- /stɛp bæk/
:
dar un paso atrás
- In difficult situations, I often find it helpful to step back and gain a fresh perspective.
- need to step back
- let's step back
- step back and breathe
It's like people just step back, see what's best for your child.
- It's like people just step back, see what's best for your child.
- It's moving slowly and being willing to step back when things don't feel OK.
- And I want us to step back and start asking, why is that?
- Always remember to step back and take moments to thank God.
- So you, you step back and look at your sensations.
- It's, it's important just to step back and understand how the industry works.
- And then you step back and think in terms of complexity.
- But when I step back and go, OK, we.
- But I guess maybe to step back just for a for a second.
- You got to, like, take a deep breath, step back from the situation.
- They can see an unhealthy situation and step back and not engage.
- I've got problems with him because he's not able to step back and see the bigger picture.
- OK, now let's step back and say, OK, what's happening to the world?
- So I step back, I said, you know what, screw it.
Examples
-
Then, give the person the opportunity to step back and rethink things.
Fiction book (2000) -
Now we can step back and say, OK, well, what does that mean?
-
I know it's hard, but he needs to step back and not comment.
-
And I want us to step back and start asking, why is that?
-
It's, it's important just to step back and understand how the industry works.
-
You might want to step back.
-
I need you to step back.
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I think it's important that people, the ones watching this film, step back and think about their own context.
Academic text (2004) -
We need to take a minute to step back and reframe the conversation.
Academic text (2010) -
Well, I'm gonna have to step back, you know, leave town for awhile.
Synonyms
53
4.1
To pause and think again about a situation to see the bigger picture
Pause briefly to look around and understand where you are
Antonyms
How Far
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'pause to consider' is a clear metaphorical extension of the literal sense: combining 'step' (a movement/action) with 'back' (to the rear) yields the idea of moving away from a situation to gain distance. This compositional logic is common cross‑linguistically and follows standard English particle-verb patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Step back comes from the simple image of taking one step away to see more clearly; imagine standing too close to a painting and you take a step back to see the whole picture. So, step back now means 'pause and think' or 'look at a situation from a wider view'.