back away

English

back away (third-person singular simple present backs away, present participle backing away, simple past and past participle backed away)

(intransitive) To move in a direction opposite to that which one is facing, keeping one's attention on the thing in front being avoided.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
  Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ […].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.

to retreat, keeping the attention in front