fight back

See also: fightback

English

Etymology

From fight and back.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /faɪt bæk/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): [fʌɪt bæk]

Verb

fight back (third-person singular simple present fights back, present participle fighting back, simple past and past participle fought back)

1. (intransitive) to defend oneself by fighting.
2. (intransitive) to counterattack; to resist an attack.
   • 2015 June 9, “Women’s World Cup 2015: England beaten by France in Group F opener”, in The Guardian (London)‎^[1]:

     With Scott and the outstanding Claire Rafferty in particular fighting back, all was not lost.

   • 2021 August 25, Richard Foster, “The rise and fall of railway's Big Four...”, in RAIL, number 938, pages 54–55:

     The 1928 Royal Commission on Transport not only set some controls for the road haulage industry, it also gave the railway companies the opportunity to fight back.

3. (transitive) to repress; to struggle to repress.

   She tried to fight back her laughter.

4. (intransitive, in sports) to overturn a losing deficit.

Translations

to defend oneself by fighting

• Finnish: taistella (fi)
• Italian: difendersi (it), contrastare (it), combattere (it)
• Latin: renītor

to counterattack; to resist an attack

• Catalan: contraatacar (ca)
• Esperanto: kontraŭataki
• Finnish: taistella (fi), taistella vastaan, tehdä vastahyökkäys
• French: contre-attaquer (fr)
• Greek: αντεπιτίθεμαι (el) (antepitíthemai)

  Ancient: ἀντεπιτίθεμαι (antepitíthemai)

• Italian: contrattaccare (it)
• Japanese: 巻き返す (makikaesu)
• Occitan: contra-atacar
• Polish: kontratakować
• Portuguese: contra-atacar
• Spanish: contraatacar (es)

to repress; to struggle to repress

• Finnish: taistella vastaan, pidättää (fi)
• Italian: reprimere (it)

sports: to overturn a losing deficit

• Finnish: nousta voittoon
• Italian: contrattaccare (it)