Meaning
To make an extraordinary or exaggerated effort, especially to help, please or reassure someone, or to demonstrate scrupulous fairness and impartiality. Usually in the frame 'bend over backwards to do something'; informal and general English. Informal; usually admiring or grateful, sometimes faintly critical of excess eagerness. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The Phrase Finder glosses the idiom as making extravagant efforts to avoid bias, and fairness is an early and persistent strand of the meaning. Reference works derive the image from the gymnastic backbend: the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms dates the expression to about 1920 and records the older variant 'lean over backwards', transferring the physical feat of bending backwards to taking extraordinary trouble. 'Fall over backwards', meaning to be eager, is a related expression. Whether the fairness sense or the general great-effort sense came first is not clearly documented.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- bend over backward
- bend over backwards to help
- fall over backwards
- lean over backwards
Usage Examples
- The hotel staff bent over backwards to accommodate our late arrival.
- The disciplinary committee has bent over backwards to be fair to both bidders.
- She bends over backwards for her clients, often at the expense of her own weekends.