aback.
Towards the back or rear; backwards.
Meaning & usage
Towards the back or rear; backwards.
In the rear; a distance behind.
By surprise; startled; dumbfounded. (see usage)
Backward against the mast; said of the sails when pressed by the wind from the "wrong" (forward) side, or of a ship when its sails are set that way.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English abak, from Old English onbæc, equivalent to a- (“towards”) + back. Compare West Frisian tebek (“aback”, adverb, literally “to/at back”), Swedish tillbaka (idem.).
An inscribed stone square.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Ancient Greek ἄβαξ (ábax)der. Latin abacusbor. English aback Borrowed from Latin abacus.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.