Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. By surprise: He was taken aback by her caustic remarks.
- adv. Nautical In such a way that the wind pushes against the forward side of a sail or sails.
- adv. Archaic Back; backward.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Toward the back or rear; backward; rearward; regressively.
- On or at the back; behind; from behind.
- Away; aloof.
- Ago: as, “eight days aback,” Ross.
- Nautical, in or into the condition of receiving the wind from ahead; with the wind acting on the forward side: said of a ship or of her sails.
- Figuratively, suddenly or unexpectedly checked, confounded, or disappointed: as, he was quite taken aback when he was refused admittance.
- n. An abacus, or something resembling one, as a flat, square stone, or a square compartment.
- All aback ( nautical), said of sails when they are all flattened against the masts by the wind acting on them from in front.
Wiktionary
- adv. By surprise; startled; dumbfounded.
- n. obsolete An abacus.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adv. Toward the back or rear; backward.
- adv. Behind; in the rear.
- adv. (Naut.) Backward against the mast; -- said of the sails when pressed by the wind.
- n. obsolete An abacus.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. by surprise
- adv. having the wind against the forward side of the sails
Etymologies
- From abacus (Wiktionary)
Examples
“As I read your stories and especially your friends who so generously comment I am taken aback (is aback a word?) by the generous sharing of wisdom you receive from your friends at French-Word-A-Day.”
“Hillary grew up in this culture, so yes she was taken "aback" by these comments; you, others, and obama being so shallow minded and dismissive of someones culture and values is ignorant. obama will never be President.”
“The richness and elegance of the church took me all "aback;" it was so entirely different from anything I had seen, that it was difficult to decide whether I was most charmed by its novelty or its beauty.”
“Options B and D are not correct as the word 'aback' means to get startled by something and does not means the same as the word 'back' which is used in the answer choices B and D.”
“You may be taken aback when you encounter this tiny local bar.”
“But I could tell that even she was taken aback by the degree of their interest.”
“In the interview, he described the last 18 months as “painful” for him and his family, and seemed taken aback by the suggestion, made by his Democratic challengers and many critics outside of New York, that he should step aside.”
“Everybody was taken aback by the frequency of these injuries: the double amputations, the injuries to the penis and testicles," said Holcomb, now a medical professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.”
The Huffington Post: Robert Naiman: Protect Your Manhood: End the War in Afghanistan
“The first time you tell a patient they're going to have to receive one they are taken aback and apprehensive, but they are remarkably tolerated, he said of the shots.”
USA Today: Study: Avastin, Lucentis equally effective for eyes
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘aback’.
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When a door is ajar
Words with the prefix "a"
ajar, asleep, akin, ablaze, afoot, abed, aground, aback, afloat, alive, abaft, abloom and 91 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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A to abominator (Chambers)
aa gets over 40 hits
aardvark 49 hits
abbatoir 103 hits
abjure 138 hitsA, A-line, A-list, A-lister, A 1, A-road, A-side, from A to B, from A to Z, A-bomb, A-effect, A level and 254 more...
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Ancient Influence
Words that inspire a feeling of old and/or mythical influences.
Ogham, sward, willow, hazel, yew, holly, barrow, runes, sepulchre, rill, rivulet, heft and 26 more...
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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soph2's Words
serendipity, audacity, groak, petrichor, lethologica, loganamnosis, agnuopia, dysania, dysphagia, neologism, incredulity, harbinger and 246 more...
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tomax's Words
legerdemain, yayo, extravasation, wont, faze, coxswain, concomitant, enclave, unguent, rhabdomyolysis, effluent, puerile and 432 more...
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Whaleworthy & Piratical Words
A list of favorite nautical words to be sprinkled liberally throughout speech for piratical or Melvillian effect.
batten down, back and fill, beamy, baulking, beckets, bilge, bold shore, boomjumper, breaker, larboard, abaft, ash breeze and 156 more...
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amber words
amber words is the term I use for words that are all but fossilized, in the sense that their use is always in the context of a single expression. Examples include caboodle, dudgeon, umbrage
sanctum, akimbo, amok, riddance, druthers, trove, caboodle, immemorial, blithering, dudgeon, swaddling, askance and 110 more...
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The Old English Influence
Modern English words impacted by and descended from Old English.
a, aback, abaft, abide, about, above, abode, accursed, accurst, ache, acknowledge, acorn and 109 more...
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Amro's GRE list
GRE selected word list
hubbub, MAGNANIMOUS, priori, aback, abacus, abase, baleful, cadense, dab, dauntless, echelon, facade and 23 more...
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Directionality & Position
abaft, larboard, contrariwise, widdershins, bass-ackward, cant, askew, cattywampus, yaw-ways, slaunchways, thwartwise, askance and 32 more...
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A
Well, here comes all the words that begin with an A.
Wish me luckaardvark, aardwolf, aaron, aaronic, ab, aba, abaca, aback, abacterial, abacus, abaft, abalone and 65 more...
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A
Tweets
Looking for tweets for aback.
chained_bear "...there were occasions when Jack was tempted to ask his way of the many fishermen, English and Dutch, who haunted those perilous banks in their shallow-draught doggers, schuyts, busses, howkers, and even bugalets, and who made his progress all the more uneasy by lying across his hawse until the last possible minute or suddenly looming out of the darkness without a single light so that he had to throw all aback."
—Patrick O'Brian, The Surgeon's Mate, 285
My favorite usage is taken aback all standing. Feb 9, 2008