BACK AND FILL

back and fill: translation

about ship, alternate, battledore and shuttlecock, bear away, bear off, bear to starboard, beat, beat about, box off, break, bring about, bring round, cant, cant round, cast, cast about, change, change course, change the heading, come about, come and go, dither, double a point, ebb and flow, equivocate, fetch about, flounder, fluctuate, go about, go through phases, gybe, heave round, hitch and hike, jibe, jibe all standing, miss stays, oscillate, pass and repass, pendulate, ply, reciprocate, ride and tie, ring the changes, round a point, seesaw, sheer, shift, shilly-shally, shuffle, shuttle, shuttlecock, slew, stagger, sway, swerve, swing, swing round, swing the stern, tack, teeter, teeter-totter, tergiversate, throw about, to-and-fro, totter, turn, turn back, vacillate, vary, veer, waver, wax and wane, wear, wear ship, wibble-wabble, wigwag, wind, wobble, yaw, zigzag

back and fill: translation

Fig. to act indecisively; to change one's direction repeatedly; to reverse one's course. (Originally nautical, referring to trimming the sails so as to alternately fill them with wind and release the wind, in order to maneuver in a narrow space.) •

The president spent most of his speech backing and filling on the question of taxation.

•

The other candidate was backing and filling on every issue, depending on whom she was addressing.