back east

adv — 2 senses

back east

adv

Etymology In American English, the idiomatic establishment of back east and out west, rather than out east and back west, implicitly reflects the history of European settlement of the interior of North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, which involved a prevailing east-to-west gradient.

1

In the eastern part of a country or region.

  • my relatives back east
2

Often In the eastern part of the United States: in the East.

Related terms
back home, old country

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.