At Wimbledon yesterday the commentator said ” The player scored two second serves back to back ” I assume he meant not facing each other.I cannot think of a suitable word to describe this rubbish by grown up resonsible people.
I’m proofreading a novel in which a group of Indians “formed a circle and, “back-to-back, they sent their arrows flying.” I couldn’t figure this out for a while, but now I can see if they’re in a circle, they actually would be back to back.
I’m seeing back to back (without hyphens) and back-to-back (with hyphens), so I assume either style is acceptable. :)
Dom:
April 28th, 2017 at 10:27 pm
What about being back to back, as in two men standing back to back in a difficult situation; not to duel but to give undying support to each other to both achieve a common goal.
Henry A.:
October 1st, 2021 at 4:28 pm
In the 1800s, two steam locomotive would be coupled ‘back2back’ to pull a common load, and only the cow catcher incline on the back would be coupled to the load but the two cabs would be consecutive and allow the engineer to tend to both fireboxes and boilers single-handedly.
Patrick A Crawley:
April 20th, 2022 at 8:52 am
Back-to-back was originally used when a team won, lost or drew both matches at home and away to the same team.
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Geoff Hazel:
July 1st, 2011 at 1:17 pm
“Stay tuned. After the break we’ll be playing 5 Beatles’ songs back-to-front” — ahh, dang. It’s technically correct but just sounds so wrong.
George Shepherd:
July 6th, 2013 at 10:39 am
At Wimbledon yesterday the commentator said ” The player scored two second serves back to back ” I assume he meant not facing each other.I cannot think of a suitable word to describe this rubbish by grown up resonsible people.
Bonnie Turner:
June 20th, 2015 at 9:07 pm
I’m proofreading a novel in which a group of Indians “formed a circle and, “back-to-back, they sent their arrows flying.” I couldn’t figure this out for a while, but now I can see if they’re in a circle, they actually would be back to back.
I’m seeing back to back (without hyphens) and back-to-back (with hyphens), so I assume either style is acceptable. :)
Dom:
April 28th, 2017 at 10:27 pm
What about being back to back, as in two men standing back to back in a difficult situation; not to duel but to give undying support to each other to both achieve a common goal.
Henry A.:
October 1st, 2021 at 4:28 pm
In the 1800s, two steam locomotive would be coupled ‘back2back’ to pull a common load, and only the cow catcher incline on the back would be coupled to the load but the two cabs would be consecutive and allow the engineer to tend to both fireboxes and boilers single-handedly.
Patrick A Crawley:
April 20th, 2022 at 8:52 am
Back-to-back was originally used when a team won, lost or drew both matches at home and away to the same team.