to and fro | Idiomator

Meaning: Back and forth; with areciprocatingmotion.1881–1882,Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 4, inTreasure Island, London; Paris:Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883,→OCLC:A light tossingto and froand still rapidly advancing showed that one of the newcomers carried a lantern.1882, G. W. Keeton, “Regulations for Maritime and Overland Trade between Chinese and Korean Subjects, 1882”, inThe Development of Extraterritoriality in China‎[1], volume II,Longmans, Green & Co., published1928,→OCLC,page341:Article V.—In consideration of the numerous difficulties arising from the authority exercised by local officials over the legal traffic at such places on the boundary as I-chou, Hui-ning, and Ch’ing-yuan, it has now been decided that the people on the frontier shall be free to goto and froand trade as they please at Ts’e-men and I-chou on the two sides of the Ya-lu River, and at Hun-ch’un and Hui-ning on the two sides of the T’u-men River.1885–1888,Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor,A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night[…], Shammar edition, volume(please specify the volume),[London]:[…]Burton Club[…],→OCLC:But presently the fumes of the wine rising to his head, he became helplessly drunk and his side-muscles and limbs relaxed and he swayedto and froon my back. When I saw that he had lost his senses for drunkenness, I put my head to his legs and, loosing them from my neck, stooped down well-nigh to the ground and threw him at full length,[…]1886, John Burroughs,Winter Sunshine, page13:He bends his knees more than the white man, and oscillates moreto and fro, or from side to side.1979, National Academy of Sciences (U.S.), IEEE Electrical Insulation Society,tAnnual report - Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena, page396:Even charges hopping on a larger array of localized sites than the two sites in (ii) execute normally many moreto-and-frooscillating motions than ...

Examples:

EN: I want to go to and fro once only.
ES: - ¡Sólo ir y volver una vez!
EN: Here, the Great King used to walk to and fro with his greyhounds on rainy days, so to speak, to promenade.
ES: El gran Rey, cuando llovía, solía andar aquí con sus galgos arriba y abajo, ... digamos que... para pasear.
EN: Walk a little to and fro.
ES: - Ande un poco de aquí para allá.
EN: I prefer to walk a little to and fro.
ES: Prefiero andar un poco de aquí para allá.
EN: ♪ And the nightmare gallops to and fro ♪
ES: Y la pesadilla vaya al galope
EN: Within this cavern, imprisoned here in endless toil. With strained and broken backs. Rolling great blocks of granite to and fro.
ES: Es esta caverna, condenados a trabajar duro para siempre... con espaldas lesionadas y rotas... cargando con grandes bloques de granito... nos encontramos con las criaturas más tontas de la tierra.
EN: I'm sorry to have to keep going to and fro
ES: Disculpen. Es sólo un momento.
EN: We assume it should hang straight down, but because the ship is rolling it swings to and fro.
ES: Asumamos que cuelga rectamente, pero como el barco se mueve se balancea de un lado a otro.
EN: Sometimes I think of the ships passing to and fro in the storm, and I listen to the gulls beating against the glass and breaking their little wings.
ES: A veces pienso en los barcos que van y vienen cuando hay tormenta. Y escucho a las gaviotas chocando contra las ventanas y rompiéndose las alas.
EN: And the scripture saith that Satan shall go to and fro in the land, and up and down in it, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
ES: Y las escrituras dicen que Satanás irá de un lado al otro en la tierra, y de arriba a abajo, caminando como un león rugiente, buscando a quién devorar.
EN: It feels like a veritable pendulum, to and fro.
ES: Parece un péndulo. De izquierda a derecha.
EN: Prancing, dancing to and fro Not too fast, not too slow
ES: Danza libre aquí y allá correteando sin parar
EN: You see, for 25 years he's been going to and fro, and fro and to. And most of the time he didn't know whether he was fro or to.
ES: Hace 25 años que va y viene, viene y va... y casi nunca sabía si iba o venía.
EN: Let her run to and fro a while.
ES: Déjala que corra un poco
EN: First I walked to and fro in front of his house for a while, and thought what I'd say.
ES: Primero he andado arriba y abajo pensando en qué decirle.

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