beat back

phrasal verb

beat back; beaten back or beat back; beating back; beats back

: to force (someone) to go back or to retreat by fighting

Our troops were beaten back by enemy forces.

Police used batons to beat the protesters back.

Examples of beat back in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Chun responded with a violent crackdown, sending in the military to beat back the protest. —

Chandelis Duster, NPR, 5 Dec. 2024 Squad members Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman lost their primaries, while Summer Lee and Ilhan Omar beat back moderate challengers. —

Mike Deehan, Axios, 12 Sep. 2024 Six years after diagnosis, Gomez, now 34, beat back a second round of cancer and is now healthy, living in DeLand, Florida with her husband and their 9-year-old daughter. —

Yuki Noguchi, NPR, 18 Dec. 2024 While some original vines remained, the practice helped beat back phylloxera, allowing the continent’s wine economy to recover. —

Mike Desimone and Jeff Jenssen, Robb Report, 15 Dec. 2024 See all Example Sentences for beat back