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set back on one's heels



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Idioms and Phrases

Surprise, shock, or disconcert, as in The news of their divorce set us back on our heels . This idiom, with its graphic image of someone being pushed back, dates from the first half of the 1900s.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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