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To and fro. World English Historical Dictionary

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To and fro. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1916, rev. 2022. To and fro phr. (adv., prep., sb., adj., vb.). [TO adv. and prep., FRO adv. and prep.]

1   A.  adv. 1. Successively to and from some place, etc.; hence more vaguely: In opposite or different directions alternately; with alternating movement; from side to side; backwards and forwards; hither and thither; up and down.

2 1340.  Hampole, Pr. Consc., 471. For a best when it es born, may ga Als tite aftir, and ryn to and fra.

3 c. 1412.  Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 543. Men passen by hym to and fro.

4 c. 1450.  Lovelich, Grail, xlv. 464. Thus the schippe In the se gan to go On day & Oþer, bothe two & Fro as the wynd it Gan to blowe.

5 1560.  Bible (Genev.), Job i. 7. The Lord said vnto Satan, Whence commest thou? And Satan answered…, From compassing the earth to and fro.

6 1660.  F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 31. Having travelled to and fro, through very many towns and countries of Persia.

7 1798.  Coleridge, Anc. Mar., VII. xii. His eyes went to and fro.

8 1807.  Crabbe, Parish Reg., II. 617. Idle children, wandering to and fro.

9 1833.  Ht. Martineau, Berkeley the Banker, I. vii. The messenger, who went to and fro between D—— and Haleham bank.

10 1855.  Stanley, Mem. Canterb., ii. (1857), 44. The pendulum which has been … swung to and fro, is at last about to settle.

11   b.  after a verbal or other sb. denoting or implying movement. (Cf. D.)

12 c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 4134. With many a turnyng to and froo.

13 1582.  N. Lichefield, trans. Castanheda’s Conq. E. Ind., xlvi. 102. They spent three daies with messages to and fro.

14 1688.  S. Penton, Guard. Instr., 59. Letters to and fro are some kind of Guard upon a Youth.

15 1840.  Macaulay, Ess., Ranke (1851), II. 131. A history of movement to and fro.

16 1888.  Burgon, Lives 12 Gd. Men, II. xi. 312. His rides to and fro.

17   † 2.  In places lying in opposite or different directions; here and there. Obs.

18 c. 1440.  York Myst., xx. 255. We haue þe sought both to & froo.

19 1513.  Douglas, Æneis, VII. ix. 96. Bayth to and fro our all the cuntre syne Wemen and moderis … Thair ȝing childryng fast to thair breistis did braice.

20 1617.  Moryson, Itin., II. 272. The Northerne Borders, where his Lordship (with his retinue) lay to and fro.

21 1670–1.  Narborough, Jrnl., in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1711), 119. Many Whales spouting to and fro in these Bays.

22 1697.  Dampier, Voy., I. xv. 425. Many shoals scattered to and fro among them.

23   † 3.  fig. To or on opposite sides alternately (esp. in discussion or the like); for and against a question; pro and con. Obs.

24 [c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, V. 1313. Troilus … rolleth in his herte to and fro How he may best discryven hir his wo.]

25 1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 71. In multipliyng of wordes to and fro.

26 1583.  Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 110. I haue heard great disputation and reasoning pro and contra, to and fro.

27 1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 803. The victory waved alternately too and fro three or foure times.

28 1649.  Milton, Eikon., 239. Thus shall they be too and fro, doubtfull and ambiguous in all thir doings.

29 1690.  W. Walker, Idiomat. Anglo-Lat., 30. When there had been some little Arguing to and fro.

30   † 4.  So (in lit. and fig. senses, as above) to or fro, to nor (no) fro. In quot. 15552, neither to nor fro = ‘neither here uor there,’ indifferent, immaterial. Obs.

31 13[?].  Cursor M., 16762 + 123 (Cott.). His sely lyms miȝt he not rest. To put hom to ne fro.

32 13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., A. 347. When þou no fyrre may, to ne fro, Þou most abyde þat he schal deme.

33 c. 1530.  H. Rhodes, Bk. Nurture, 329. Cast not thyne eyes to ne yet fro.

34 1555.  Philpot, in Foxe, A. & M. (1583), 1814/2. You stande dalying … and will neither answere to nor fro.

35 1555.  Latimer, Lett. to Morice, ibid., 1741/2. As it is called a fire, so is it called a Worme:… but that is neither to nor fro.

36 1579.  Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 297. Oecumenius saith little to the purpose, too or fro.

37 1652.  Ashmole, Theat. Chem. Brit., 204. Till thou hearest no manner of noyse Tumbling to nor fro.

38   B.  prep. To and from (a place); alternately to and from each of (two places): the latter now commonly expressed by between (BETWEEN prep. 9). Now rare.

39 1574.  Calr. Laing Charters (1899), 225. Ane gait to cum and gang to and fra the same.

40 1598.  Hakluyt, Voy., I. 109. Messengers going and comming to and fro the Court of Baatu.

41 1860.  Reade, 8th Commandm., 123. Counsel, who were continually flashing to and fro London and Croydon.

42 1885.  Jefferies, Open Air (1890), 126. The stream of lawyers … rushing to and fro the Temple and the New Law Courts.

43   C.  sb. (now with hyphens; but pl. tos and fros).

44   1.  Alternating or reciprocating movement; the action of walking or passing to and fro.

45 1847.  Tennyson, Princ., II. 282. She, Like some wild creature newly-caged, commenced A to-and-fro.

46 1855.  Browning, Lovers’ Quarrel, xi. How was earth to know, ’Neath the mute hand’s to-and-fro?

47 1906.  Westm. Gaz., 14 Sept., 2/3. Watching the to-and-fro of a shuttle.

48   2.  fig. Alteration generally; vacillation; † discussion for and against a question (obs.).

49 1553.  Bale, Vocacyon, 40. In whose returne there was muche to and fro. For some wolde nedes to London … [and some] into Flaunders.

50 c. 1627.  R. Cary, Mem. (1905), 96. Many tos and fros there were before it was concluded.

51 1641.  Earl Monm., trans. Biondi’s Civil Warres, II. 90. The incommodities and difficulties…, after many too’s and fro’s, caused a second peace.

52 1888.  Gladstone, in 19th Cent., July, 3. From the great national to-and-fro of the sixteenth century.

53   D.  adj. (usually with hyphens). Executed, as movement, in opposite directions alternately; alternating, reciprocating; characterized by, or characterizing, such movement; passing to and fro.

54 1839.  De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornw., etc., xv. 580. This to-and-fro motion.

55 1856.  Dobell, Lyrics in War Time, Even. Dream. The to and fro storm of the never done hurrahing.

56 1878.  Huxley, Physiogr., 146. The regular to-and-fro motion of the water in its estuary.

57 1898.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 755. As a rule pericardial friction-sound has a double, or to-and-fro rhythm.

58   E.  as vb. phr. (only in pres. pple. and vbl. sb. toing and froing, rarely to-and-froing). a. intr. To pass to and fro, to go hither and thither.

59 1847.  Le Fanu, T. O’Brien, 108. The clatter and bustle, the … toing and froing of the soldiery. Ibid. (1872), In a Glass Darkly, I. 272. There were clerks to-ing and fro-ing.

60 1888.  Morris, King’s Lesson (1890), 137. Unto him the King gave the job of toing and froing up and down the hill with the biggest dung-basket.

61 1904.  Westm. Gaz., 28 Nov., 2/2. Why all this secrecy about these to-ings and fro-ings?

62   b.  trans. To lead to and fro. rare–1.

63 1852.  R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, xxxii. A cockaded servant was ‘to and froing’ a couple of hunters—a brown and a chestnut.

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