beat back

beat back (third-person singular simple present beats back, present participle beating back, simple past beat back, past participle beaten back or beat back)

1. to fight against and cause to recede
   • 2020, Barack Obama, chapter 13, in A Promised Land, Crown:

     I couldn't expect people to understand how much their voices actually meant to me—how they had sustained my spirits and beat back whispering doubts on those late, solitary nights.

• back beat, backbeat