drop back

Idioms and Phrases

Step back, retreat. For example, When it was time for a group picture, Mary dropped back .

Example Sentences

From third on the grid, he made a bad start and dropped back but by lap 13 he was past Williams' Jacques Villeneuve and into the lead.

From BBC

The pass-happy approach seemed destined to doom the Trojans until midway through the third quarter, when Moss dropped back on fourth and nine, in desperate need of a spark.

From Los Angeles Times

But he dropped back a second the following lap, whereupon Sainz came on the radio to make an unspecified complaint about Leclerc, using bad language.

From BBC

They handed Norris a five-second penalty and as he had pulled out only a 4.1-second lead once in front, he was dropped back to fourth place, one behind the Red Bull driver, in the results.

From BBC

But when he drops back into shotgun he starts directing traffic the way he would in an NFL game, barking at his pint-sized teammates and rocketing point-blank spirals at them.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• chase
• fall behind
• falter
• lag
• pull