: activity involving alternating movement in opposite directions
the busy to-and-fro of the holiday shoppers
: forward and backward
: from one place to another
Examples of to-and-fro in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
IEEE Spectrum, 30 Dec. 2011
Russian officials did not confirm Ukraine's gains, which were impossible to verify and could be reversed in the to-and-fro of war.
—Jamey Keaten, ajc, 12 June 2023
Taylor Luck, The Christian Science Monitor, 25 Oct. 2024
Final Message from Doomed Titan Sub Revealed, Sent Seconds Before Losing Contact with the Surface
Rush ignored concerns about the weather, and how the currents in the Atlantic, off the coast of Massachusetts, were buffeting the dive platform to and fro.
—Adam Carlson, Peoplemag, 17 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for to-and-fro 
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.
Noun
That’s enough to pace the to-and-fro motion of a star to within 1 meter per second—about walking speed—from hundreds of light-years away.
—IEEE Spectrum, 30 Dec. 2011
Russian officials did not confirm Ukraine's gains, which were impossible to verify and could be reversed in the to-and-fro of war.
—Jamey Keaten, ajc, 12 June 2023
Adverb
That has been an especially agonizing question for Palestinians in Gaza, ordered to and fro by Israel for more than a year.
—Taylor Luck, The Christian Science Monitor, 25 Oct. 2024
Final Message from Doomed Titan Sub Revealed, Sent Seconds Before Losing Contact with the Surface
Rush ignored concerns about the weather, and how the currents in the Atlantic, off the coast of Massachusetts, were buffeting the dive platform to and fro.
—Adam Carlson, Peoplemag, 17 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for to-and-fro
Dictionary Entries Near to-and-fro
Cite this Entry
“To-and-fro.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/to-and-fro. Accessed 23 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share