go back

What it means

To return to a place where you were before, or to return to an earlier time or topic. It can also describe a relationship or memory that 'goes back' many years.

Examples

• I never want to go back to that hotel again.
• She decided to go back to school at the age of forty.
• Let's go back to what you said earlier about the budget.
• He and I go back more than twenty years.

Where it comes from

Inseparable. Use 'go back' when speaking about returning to somewhere you aren't currently — if you're still at the destination, you'd say 'come back' instead. 'Go back to' plus a person or activity often means resuming ('go back to work', 'go back to him after the argument').

Related phrasal verbs