Pullback

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. An act of drawing back or retreating from a position ; a decrease or decline in quantity or intensity ; an opposition or reluctance to accept changes
2. The movement of pulling away or withdrawing from a place or situation ; a drop or reduction, often in prices or levels ; the act of resisting or opposing innovation or progress
3. A backward movement or retraction from a previous stance ; a fall or lowering in amount or value ; resistance to alterations or new developments in a system or idea

Etymology: "Pullback" is a compound of "pull" and "back," and it was built from the phrasal verb "pull back" rather than the other way around. Its noun use is a deverbal formation, meaning it was derived from the verb by reshaping the two-word phrase into a single noun. The verb itself is the older building block: "pull" and "back" have long combined to describe drawing something toward oneself or away from a position, and the noun grew out of that sense of retreat. The three senses in the meaning list follow the same logic of withdrawal. Literally, a pullback is a retreat from a place, such as troops drawing away from a front line. Applied to prices or levels, it describes a backward movement in a market, a drop after a rise. The third sense, resisting innovation or progress, extends the image of drawing back from something new. Each use keeps the central idea of moving backward away from a point the mover had been heading toward.

Synonyms: retraction, withdrawal, recession, decrease, decline

Antonyms: advance, increase, growth, expansion, progress