fight back
[fʌɪt bæk] verb
Forms fights back fighting back fought back
- verb (intransitive) To defend oneself by fighting. “The bully hadn't been expecting his victim to fight back, and now the bully has quadriplegia.”
- verb (intransitive) To counterattack (counterstrike); to resist an attack or respond after one. “During the Pearl Harbor attack, the U.S. Navy began fighting back, and it wouldn't stop until August 1945.”
- verb (transitive) to repress; to struggle to repress. “fight back tears”
- verb (intransitive, in sports) To overturn a losing deficit.
Synonyms
Etymology
From fight and back.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “fight back”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details