be on the back foot

To be in a position of disadvantage, retreat, or defeat. A large portion of our funding was cut at the last minute, so this project has been on the back foot from the get-go. The once-dominant airline company has been on the back foot ever since several no-frills competitors entered the market.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Wibowo	-	Indonesian, Javanese
Daniel	DAN-yəl (English), dah-nee-EL (Jewish), dan-YEL (French), DAH-nee-el (German), DAHN-yel (Polish)	English, Hebrew, French, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Spanish, Portugu
Iina	-	Finnish
Turin	-	Literature
Mechteld	MEKH-təlt	Dutch
Klaudio	-	Croatian