UK, Idiomatic To change or revise a previous opinion or decision.
Indeed, part of the problem was that Armstrong was rowing back on so much previous behaviour and years of aggressive lambasting of reporters, officials and team-mates who had claimed he was doping. "I don't forgive Lance Armstrong, who lied to me in two interviews. And I suspect most of America won't, either," Kurtz wrote.2013 January 19, Paul Harris, “Lance Armstrong faces multi-million dollar legal challenges after confession”, in The Guardian:
Labour has rowed back from a plan for new rolling stock to be procured and owned in the public sector - with the party's rail spokesman saying it is not a priority.2022 October 5, “Network News: Private sector's role in a publicly-owned railway”, in RAIL, number 967, page 16:
1 more example
Speaking to the Guardian in one of his first campaign interviews, Timmermans said the UK government was one of the countries rowing back on green pledges.2023 October 10, Senay Boztas, “Frans Timmermans urges European left to unite against right’s climate backlash”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Derived terms
row-back
row-back
noun
UK /ˈɹəʊbak/ · US /ˈɹoʊbæk/
Etymology From row back.
1
A backtrack or reversal of position; a U-turn.
There was, however, a row back on the question of the use of force which, while not totally rejected as a course of action, will only be resorted to when all other possibilities have been exhausted.2011 February 7, Elissa Jobson, The Guardian:
After this piece appeared, Garton Ash's liberal credentials seemed genuinely to be on the table, and in London that afternoon his hands visibly shook as he began with an admirable and apparently sincere row-back (an act that this book reconfirms).2016 May, Douglas Murray, Literary Review, page 34: