: activity involving alternating movement in opposite directions
the busy to-and-fro of the holiday shoppers
: forward and backward
: from one place to another
Examples of to-and-fro in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
IEEE Spectrum, 30 Dec. 2011
Russian officials did not confirm Ukraine's gains, which were impossible to verify and could be reversed in the to-and-fro of war.
—Jamey Keaten, ajc, 12 June 2023
After making the seats sway to-and-fro as expected, an attendant would stop the swing and spin the entire room around the riders (all the furniture was bolted to the floor).
—Popular Science, 20 July 2023
That to-and-fro, in my work, of coherence and incoherence interests me a lot.
—Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 18 June 2023
Russian officials did not confirm Ukraine’s gains, which were impossible to verify and could be reversed in the to-and-fro of war.
—Jamey Keaten, BostonGlobe.com, 12 June 2023
Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 4 Apr. 2024
The letters to and fro are both a point of connection between us and our daughter and a way to push for the right amount of separation.
—Damien Cave, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024
Threaded throughout the black-and-white footage of Angela’s mad rushes to and fro are clips from a 1980s Romanian film called Angela Moves On, a melodrama about a female cab driver.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 26 Mar. 2024
Scorpio October 23 – November 21 The storms of life might be tossing you to and fro right now!
—Tarot.com, Sun Sentinel, 10 Jan. 2024
The streets, the markets, every square foot of open space is crammed with people bustling to and fro.
—Ghada Abdulfattah, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Jan. 2024
As the team charged down the field, a strange roar was building in the stands — the chorus of hundreds of cowbells swinging to and fro on the homecoming mums.
—Rachel Sherman, New York Times, 30 Sep. 2023
Progressed from loafing here and there with scant dollars in my pocket, to swaggering to and fro with a bankroll swelling my sock.
—Mitchell S. Jackson, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2023
The languid, nostalgic song, evocative of 70s pop, had the audience swaying to and fro.
—Billboard Japan, Billboard, 17 Nov. 2023
Noun
That’s enough to pace the to-and-fro motion of a star to within 1 meter per second—about walking speed—from hundreds of light-years away.
—IEEE Spectrum, 30 Dec. 2011
Russian officials did not confirm Ukraine's gains, which were impossible to verify and could be reversed in the to-and-fro of war.
—Jamey Keaten, ajc, 12 June 2023
After making the seats sway to-and-fro as expected, an attendant would stop the swing and spin the entire room around the riders (all the furniture was bolted to the floor).
—Popular Science, 20 July 2023
That to-and-fro, in my work, of coherence and incoherence interests me a lot.
—Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 18 June 2023
Russian officials did not confirm Ukraine’s gains, which were impossible to verify and could be reversed in the to-and-fro of war.
—Jamey Keaten, BostonGlobe.com, 12 June 2023
Adverb
In the leafcutter ant exhibit, visitors can watch half a million tiny ants scurry industriously to and fro, hefting shards of leaves above their heads like tiny sails.
—Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 4 Apr. 2024
The letters to and fro are both a point of connection between us and our daughter and a way to push for the right amount of separation.
—Damien Cave, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024
Threaded throughout the black-and-white footage of Angela’s mad rushes to and fro are clips from a 1980s Romanian film called Angela Moves On, a melodrama about a female cab driver.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 26 Mar. 2024
Scorpio October 23 – November 21 The storms of life might be tossing you to and fro right now!
—Tarot.com, Sun Sentinel, 10 Jan. 2024
The streets, the markets, every square foot of open space is crammed with people bustling to and fro.
—Ghada Abdulfattah, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Jan. 2024
As the team charged down the field, a strange roar was building in the stands — the chorus of hundreds of cowbells swinging to and fro on the homecoming mums.
—Rachel Sherman, New York Times, 30 Sep. 2023
Progressed from loafing here and there with scant dollars in my pocket, to swaggering to and fro with a bankroll swelling my sock.
—Mitchell S. Jackson, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2023
The languid, nostalgic song, evocative of 70s pop, had the audience swaying to and fro.
—Billboard Japan, Billboard, 17 Nov. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'to-and-fro.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near to-and-fro
Cite this Entry
“To-and-fro.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/to-and-fro. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share