talk back

See also: talkback

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

talk back (third-person singular simple present talks back, present participle talking back, simple past and past participle talked back)

1. (idiomatic, intransitive, often with to + d.o.) To reply impertinently or rudely; to answer in a cheeky or rude manner.

   Jane talked back a little too often.

   Jane talked back to most of her teachers.

   • 2025 October 4, Maureen Dowd, “When A.I. Came for Hollywood”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 October 2025:

     And all over Hollywood, suits are licking their chops at the prospect of more malleable actors. “She’s not going to talk back,” one top talent wrangler told me dryly.

2. (idiomatic) To return disrespect.

Synonyms

• (reply impertinently): backtalk (verb)
• (both senses): answer back

Derived terms

• talkback (noun)

Translations

to reply impertinently; to answer in a cheeky manner

• Cebuano: tubagtubag
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 駁嘴 / 驳嘴 (bok³ zeoi²)

  Mandarin: 頂嘴 / 顶嘴 (zh) (dǐngzuǐ)

• Czech: odmlouvat
• Finnish: väittää vastaan
• French: ramener sa gueule (fr) (colloquial)
• German: Widerworte geben, frech antworten

  Bavarian: wem a Goschn åhänga

• Hebrew: הִתְחַצֵּף (hitkhatséf)
• Italian: rispondere in malo modo, rispondere (it), rimbeccare (it), controbattere (it), ribattere (it), eccepire (it)
• Polish: odpyskiwać impf, odpyskowywać impf, odpyskować pf
• Russian: огрызаться (ru) (ogryzatʹsja), дерзить (ru) (derzitʹ)
• Ukrainian: огриза́тися (ohryzátysja)

Anagrams

• backtalk, back talk