From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbackpedalback‧ped‧al /ˌbækˈpedl $ ˈbækˌpedl/ verb (backpedalled, backpedalling British English, backpedaled, backpedaling American English) [intransitive] 1 CHANGE YOUR MINDto change your opinion or not do something that you had promised to do → backtrack They are backpedalling on the commitment to cut taxes.2 TTBto pedal backwards on a bicycle3 to run or walk backwards→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
backpedal• The country's government is backpedaling on some of the reforms.