draw away
verb1
To move away.
- She looked at me and then turned and glanced at my arm about her, and then she seemed quite suddenly to realize the scantiness of her apparel and drew away, covering her face with her palms and blushing furiously.1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter VIII, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:
2
To lead away, or cause to move away, by luring.
- An almost 19th-century atmosphere has returned to Beetham since the M6 motorway drew away the traffic which used to roar along its main street.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd., page 53:
- Synonyms
- shrink back