answer back

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

answer back (third-person singular simple present answers back, present participle answering back, simple past and past participle answered back)

1. (ambitransitive) To reply impertinently to (someone); to talk back.

   I'll thank you not to answer back like that! Where are your manners?

   She answered him back rudely.

   • 1990, K. D. Gangrade, Rameshwar Prasad Misra, Conflict Resolution Through Non-violence: Development without destruction, Concept Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 244:

     This further enraged the mother-in-law who reprimanded the girl for answering back to elders.

2. To reply to a question from (someone) at a later time.

   Please answer me back before the end of the week.

3. (sports) To match an opponent’s recent scoring effort.
4. (computing) To issue echo characters, protocol responses, reflexive connection requests, etc.

• In all senses the object (if mentioned) may appear before or after the particle. If the object is a pronoun, then it must be before the particle.
• Proscribed in most contexts due to redundancy.

• answerback

• back answer