answer back

(adverb) to reply rudely to (a person, esp someone in authority) when one is expected to remain silent

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Translations

rispondere male

w>answer back

vi → widersprechen; (children also) → patzige or freche Antworten geben; don’t answer back! → keine Widerrede!; it’s not fair to criticize him because he can’t answer back → es ist unfair, ihn zu kritisieren, weil er sich nicht verteidigen kann

vt sep to answer somebody back → jdm widersprechen; (children also) → jdm patzige or freche Antworten geben

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

I wish Hannah had come instead of me for it was Hannah that was wanted and she is better than I am and does not answer back so quick.

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and bring an answer back immediately," she said to the messenger.

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I thought, perhaps, if I waited an hour or so, I might take the answer back with me."

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A body could answer back then and argue him into reason.

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Now will you learn not to answer back when I speak to you?

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And somebody trotting along with the gang would answer back and say:

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'You needn't go on making remarks like that,' Humpty Dumpty said: 'they're not sensible, and they put me out.' 'I sent a message to the fish: I told them "This is what I wish." The little fishes of the sea, They sent an answer back to me.

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Matkah knew better than to answer back. She looked round and cooed: "How thoughtful of you.

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"I might have known it by the sleek face and the slavish manner too monk-ridden and craven in spirit to answer back a rough word.

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Don't answer back as though we were a vaudeville team doing a cross-talk act.

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If people abuse them, they are not to answer back. What does it signify?

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This is a direct attack on the country and it is high time to answer back to Pakistan.

'Pakistan is the nursery of terrorism, high time to answer back'

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