to and fro
Adverb
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Adverb
to and fro (not comparable)
- back and forth; with a reciprocating motion.
- 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night:
- But presently the fumes of the wine rising to his head, he became helplessly drunk and his side-muscles and limbs relaxed and he swayed to and fro on my back. When I saw that he had lost his senses for drunkenness, I put my head to his legs and, loosing them from my neck, stooped down well-nigh to the ground and threw him at full length, […]
- 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night:
- French: çà et là
- German: hin und her; hin und zurück; vor und zurück
- Italian: avanti e indietro
- Portuguese: para frente e para trás
- Russian: туда́-сюда́
- Spanish: de ceca en meca, palante y patrás
to and fro
- To go back and forth; to alternate.
- 2015, Barbara Taylor, The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times ↗
- "For a while I didn't tell anyone on the ward where I was going, but my toing and froing made people curious and eventually I confided in a few."
- 2015, Barbara Taylor, The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times ↗
to and fro (not comparable)
- (dated) Pertaining to something or someone moving forward and back to the same position.
to and fro (plural to and fros)
- (dated) The movement (of someone or something) forward followed by a return to the same position. May refer to a concept such as an emotional state or a relationship as well as a physical thing.
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003