beat back

beat back

To force a person or thing to retreat. How are we going to beat back the approaching troops? Beating back feelings of fear has allowed me to follow my dreams.
See also: back, beat
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

beat someone or something back

to drive someone or something back to where it came from. We beat them back to where they were before the war started. The army beat back the defenders and saved the town. They were able to beat the wolves back and make an escape.
See also: back, beat
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

beat back

Force to retreat or withdraw, as in His findings beat back all their arguments to the contrary. This phrase was often used in a military context (and still is), as in Their armies were beaten back. [Late 1500s]
See also: back, beat
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • burn one's bridges/boats, to
  • come back and see us
  • back
  • back at (something or some place)
  • echo back to
  • be/go back to square one
  • a while back
  • draw/pull in one's horns, to
  • back door
  • back to square one
References in periodicals archive
An overflow crowd began fighting their way through the gates, and guards beat back the crowd with clubs and rifle butts.
The muscle cars were not strong enough to beat back the growth in popularity of sport utility vehicles and pick-up trucks - despite the fact that more than four million Camaros have been sold since the model was introduced in 1967.
The start-ups will need every technological edge available to beat back the major U.S.
When a manager tries to slip someone into the organization without going through HR, there will be a scrimmage and HR will try to beat back the challenge.
Her heroes often find themselves scavenging on the margins of society: Transients like the ever-present panhandlers - some wily, some industrious, some pathetically desperate - discover ways to battle daily indignities with laughter and small acts of kindness; friends like Nan, "holed up in high-rise hell" and fighting poverty and diabetes, beat back the lure of suicide by simply sharing a conversation with a friend; and strangers like an unknown woman, falling to her death from the Barham overpass, realize they are unable to beat off the lure of suicide "in a metropolis gone mad, where the only politics is survival and success is measured in multiples of zeroes."
Liberals must beat back, as they did in 1997, Republican attempts to dismantle the earned income tax credit, the major income supplement to low-wage workers that some Republicans have targeted as a form of"welfare" If liberals fail to make this connection--if we believe, as conservatives appear to believe, that we can pursue GDP growth pure and simple, without concern for fairness--we may find that we have made both growth and fairness into scarce commodities.
Anne, who is only a child at the time, is terrified, especially when a preternatural event does occur--an evil spirit, identified as Merlin, declares that in this place "the army of Alfred the Fool did beat back the forces of the Danes," putting an end to the glory of ancient Britain and eclipsing temporarily the forces of the earth.
Although you can beat back the general household dust invasion, dust will never go away.
Ohio activists recently beat back regressive changes in workers'-compensation laws.
Earlier on Saturday, the Syrian army troops and their Palestinian allies continued to beat back Nouralddeen al-Zinki terrorists from more positions in the Eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo city after hours of non-stop battle.
Hundreds of firefighters were joined by six helicopters and six fixedwing aircraft trying to beat back the flames.
Best bet at Wincanton is the Andrew-Balding trained Albinus (2.50), who will be hard to beat back in novice company after his third in the Imperial Cup at Sandown.
Last year's winner was In The Woods (10-1), trained by Peter Payne, who beat Back By Daylight half a length in 36.80sec (track 0.60sec slow).
But bad weather beat back Lochaber mountain rescue team and an RAF helicopter.