toandfro (notcomparable)
- Back and forth; with areciprocatingmotion.
1882, G. W. Keeton, “Regulations for Maritime and Overland Trade between Chinese and Korean Subjects, 1882”, inThe Development of Extraterritoriality in China[1], volume II,Longmans, Green & Co., published1928,→OCLC,page341:Article V.—In consideration of the numerous difficulties arising from the authority exercised by local officials over the legal traffic at such places on the boundary as I-chou, Hui-ning, and Ch’ing-yuan, it has now been decided that the people on the frontier shall be free to goto and fro and trade as they please at Ts’e-men and I-chou on the two sides of the Ya-lu River, and at Hun-ch’un and Hui-ning on the two sides of the T’u-men River.
1885–1888,Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor,A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume(please specify the volume),[London]: […] Burton Club […],→OCLC:But presently the fumes of the wine rising to his head, he became helplessly drunk and his side-muscles and limbs relaxed and he swayedto 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,[…]
1886, John Burroughs,Winter Sunshine, page13:He bends his knees more than the white man, and oscillates moreto and fro, or from side to side.
1979, National Academy of Sciences (U.S.), IEEE Electrical Insulation Society,tAnnual report - Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena, page396:Even charges hopping on a larger array of localized sites than the two sites in (ii) execute normally many moreto-and-fro oscillating motions than ...
back and forth
- Azerbaijani:o yan-bu yan
- Chinese:
- Mandarin:來回 /来回 (zh)(láihuí),來來回回 /来来回回(láiláihuíhuí)
- Czech:sem tam,sem a tam
- Danish:til og fra,frem og tilbage
- Dutch:heen en weer (nl),op en neer
- Esperanto:tien kaj reen
- Finnish:edestakaisin (fi)
- French:d'avant en arrière
- German:hin und her (de);hin und zurück;vor und zurück
- Greek:μπρος πίσω(bros píso)
- Hungarian:oda-vissza (hu),ide-oda (hu),előre-hátra (hu)
- Italian:avanti e indietro
- Japanese:行ったり来たり(いったりきたり, ittarikitari)
- Kashubian:w tã ë nazôd
- Korean:이리저리 (ko)(irijeori)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål:til og fra,frem og tilbake (no),fram og tilbake
- Nynorsk:til og frå,fram og attende
- Occitan:en avant e en rèire
- Old English:hider and þider,hider and geond
- Polish:tam i z powrotem (pl),w tę i nazad,w tę i we w tę (pl)
- Portuguese:parafrenteeparatrás
- Russian:туда́-сюда́ (ru)(tudá-sjudá),взад и вперёд(vzad i vperjód)
- Sanskrit:वि (sa)(vi)
- Sicilian:avanti e 'n arreri
- Spanish:de ceca en meca,palante y patrás,de la ceca a la meca
- Swedish:av och an (sv),fram och tillbaka (sv),fram och åter,hit och dit (sv)
- Tocharian B:orkäntai
- Turkish:ileri geri,bir ileri bir geri
- Yoruba:lọ́tùn-ún lósì,sọ́tùn-ún sósì
|
toandfro (third-person singular simple presenttos and frosorto and fros,present participletoing and froingorto and froing,simple past and past participletoed and froedorto and froed)
- (idiomatic) To goback and forth; toalternate.
2015,Barbara Taylor,The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times[2]:"For a while I didn't tell anyone on the ward where I was going, but mytoing and froing made people curious and eventually I confided in a few."
pertaining to something in to and fro motion
toandfro (notcomparable)
- (dated)Pertaining to something or someone movingforward andback to the sameposition.
1847, Peter Mere Latham,Lectures on subjects connected with clinical medicine, comprising diseases, page90:The next day he had more power of moving his limbs, and theto and fro sound was thought to be a little less distinct.
pertaining to something in to and fro motion
toandfro (pluralto and frosortos and fros)
- (dated) The movement (of someone or something)forward followed by areturn to the sameposition. May refer to aconcept such as anemotionalstate or arelationship as well as aphysical thing.
1849, Ralph Erskine,Gospel sonnets; or, Spiritual songs, page233:My life's a maze of seeming traps, A scene of mercies and mishaps; A heap of jarringto and fros, A field of joys, A field of woes.
