Quranic root
دبر
d · b · r
The root centers on what is behind, at the back, or at the end, in contrast with what is before or in front.
From spatial backness and following come meanings of retreating, coming after, reaching an outcome, considering an affair's consequences, managing it with forethought, and referring to its latter part or surviving remnant. Several specialized usages preserve the same back/end orientation.
- Maqāyīs · row 1696
- 8
- Quran-attested forms
- 11
- Quran senses
- 44
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
دَبَّرَ
dabbara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 4 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To manage, arrange, regulate, or dispose of an affair with forethought.
The construction concerns considering an affair's issues, consequences, or orderly execution; it may be used of divine governance and of deliberate human management.
- Lane · entry 82
- Mufradāt · row 455
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:3word 15
“disposing”
Quran 32:5word 1
“He regulates”
أَدْبَرَ
ʾadbara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 4 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To turn back, go away, retreat, or turn one's back.
Used of a person or group moving away or backward, in contrast with advancing or approaching.
- Lane · entry 84
- Mufradāt · row 455
Selected Quran examples
Quran 70:17word 3
“turned his back”
To depart or pass into its latter stage; to decline or recede.
Used especially of night, day, a season, or another period or condition. Interpretations of the Quranic expression concerning night include its following the day and its retreating to depart.
- Lane · entry 84
- Mufradāt · row 455
Selected Quran examples
Quran 74:33word 3
“it departs”
تَدَبَّرَ
tadabbara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form V
- Form
- V
- Quran occurrences
- 4 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To reflect on, examine, and seek to understand the meaning and consequences of something.
In the Quran it is used of considering the Quran or revealed speech deeply and repeatedly in order to attain understanding.
- Lane · entry 82
- Mufradāt · row 455
Selected Quran examples
Quran 47:24word 2
“they ponder”
Quran 38:29word 5
“that they may ponder”
إِدْبَارٌ
ʾidbārun
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
The latter part, aftermath, or time after something; departure into what follows.
Used as a temporal adverbial expression. In Quranic usage it can refer to what follows or to the latter parts of an act or period; it is related to the back or end of the thing.
- Lane · entry 93
- Lane · entry 84
- Mufradāt · row 455
Selected Quran examples
Quran 52:49word 4
“and after”
دَابِرٌ
dābirun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 4 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
The last remaining part, remnant, or root of a people or group.
In the Quran it denotes the surviving end or stock of a people, especially in expressions about cutting them off or extirpating them.
- Lane · entry 108
- Mufradāt · row 455
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:45word 2
“(the) remnant”
Quran 7:72word 7
“the roots”
دُبُرٌ
duburun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 18 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
The back, rear, or hinder side of a person or thing.
The Quran uses it for the back of a person and for the rear or back side of an object, in contrast with the front.
- Lane · entry 93
- Mufradāt · row 455
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:27word 6
“(the) back”
A person's turning back or retreating, especially in the construction of turning or putting one's back.
This is a conventional resultative use of the noun: turning the back denotes flight, retreat, or being routed rather than merely describing anatomy.
- Lane · entry 93
- Mufradāt · row 455
Selected Quran examples
Quran 54:45word 4
“(their) backs”
The latter or concluding part of something.
In Quranic temporal and ritual expressions it denotes the end or latter parts of prayers, prostration, or another period; it may also refer to what follows toward the west or setting.
- Lane · entry 93
- Mufradāt · row 455
Selected Quran examples
Quran 50:40word 4
“and after”
مُدَبِّرَةٌ
mudabbirahun
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
One who manages, orders, or regulates affairs.
The Quranic feminine plural refers to entities charged with arranging or administering affairs; the singular citation form is shown here for the lexical item.
- Lane · entry 117
- Mufradāt · row 455
Selected Quran examples
Quran 79:5word 1
“And those who arrange”
مُدْبِرٌ
mudbirun
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 8 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Turning away, retreating, or fleeing with one's back turned.
It is an active participle of أَدْبَرَ and may describe a person or group in the state of retreat or departure.
- Lane · entry 114
- Mufradāt · row 455
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:25word 23
“fleeing”
Quran 21:57word 7
“turning (your) backs”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 3:111ٱلْأَدْبَارَthe backs
- 4:47أَدْبَارِهَآtheir backs
- 4:82يَتَدَبَّرُونَthey ponder
- 5:21أَدْبَارِكُمْyour backs
- 6:45دَابِرُ(the) remnant
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 75 Classical meanings
دَبَرَ
To follow behind someone or something; to come after in place, time, or rank.
A Form I verb of following or succeeding, including coming after another person.
- Lane · entry 81
دَبَرَ
Of an arrow, to pass beyond the target and fall behind it.
Used specifically of an arrow passing beyond the butt or target.
- Lane · entry 81
دَبَرَ بِهِ
To go away with something, carry it off, or cause it to pass away.
- Lane · entry 81
دَبَرَ
Of a people, to perish, go away, and not return.
This is the Form I resultative sense of disappearance or destruction, distinct from simply retreating.
- Lane · entry 81
دَبَرَ
To grow old or reach its later stage.
Reported especially of night in an interpretation associated with a Quranic reading, but the cited reading is not the canonical QAC form at that location.
- Lane · entry 81
دَبَرَتِ الرِّيحُ
Of the wind, to blow from the west or hinder quarter, or to change and come from that direction.
The west is conceived as the direction behind or at the back.
- Lane · entry 81
دُبِرَ
To be struck or affected by the westerly wind.
An impersonal or passive Form I usage referring to the wind called الدَّبُور.
- Lane · entry 81
دَبَرَ
To write a writing, letter, or book.
A rare attribution to one authority; other lexical authorities reject it in favor of ذَبَرَ.
- Lane · entry 81
دَبِرَ
Of a horse, camel, or similar animal, to develop galls or sores on the back.
The sores are produced by a saddle or similar burden.
- Lane · entry 81
دَبَّرَ
To make a slave or enslaved person free after the owner's death.
The declaration makes emancipation depend on the owner's death; this legal usage is called tadbīr.
- Lane · entry 82
دَبَّرَ الحَدِيثَ
To transmit a tradition, narrative, or report received from another person.
The reported usage is attributed to authorities and is especially described as transmitting it after that person's death; it is disputed by authorities who read ذَبَرَ instead.
- Lane · entry 82
دَابَرَ
To turn away from a companion, avoid or shun him, and become hostile or at variance with him.
The reciprocal or relational sense extends to severing ties of kinship.
- Lane · entry 83
دَابَرَ
To make a slit in the hinder part of a ewe's, goat's, or camel's ear.
The slit leaves or produces a hanging strip turned toward the back.
- Lane · entry 83
أَدْبَرَ
To feign negligence or inattention toward a friend's need, as though turning away from him.
A figurative interpersonal extension of turning the back.
- Lane · entry 84
أَدْبَرَ
Of an affair or people's condition, to take a backward course or decline into a bad state.
The sense is opposed to advancing or improving; it may describe the decline of good fortune.
- Lane · entry 84
- Lane · entry 115
أَدْبَرَتِ الصَّلَاةُ
Of a prayer, to end or reach its conclusion.
A figurative temporal use derived from the prayer's entering its latter part.
- Lane · entry 84
أَدْبَرَ
To die or pass away.
A figurative extension of departing; it is not the ordinary Quranic retreat sense.
- Lane · entry 84
أَدْبَرَ
To place or make a person or thing behind another.
Used of relative position, as opposed to placing something in front.
- Lane · entry 84
أَدْبَرَ
To cause a camel, horse, or similar animal to become galled or sore on the back; also, of the animal, to become so galled.
The source distinguishes causative and intransitive applications of the back-sore construction.
- Lane · entry 84
أَدْبَرَ
To perform or describe an ear-slitting operation in which the hanging strip turns toward the back of the neck.
This is the Form IV terminology for the same specialized ear marking contrasted with إِقْبَالَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 84
أَدْبَرَ
To recognize a person's paternal or maternal side from the other side.
An idiomatic use involving knowing the back or rear aspect of lineage in contrast with its front aspect.
- Lane · entry 84
أَدْبَرَ
To enter upon a period in which the westerly wind is blowing.
A specialized meteorological usage.
- Lane · entry 84
أَدْبَرَ
To travel on the day called دُبَار, Wednesday.
An archaic calendrical usage.
- Lane · entry 84
أَدْبَرَ
To become possessed of much property, wealth, or many camels.
A specialized lexical usage unrelated to the ordinary retreat sense.
- Lane · entry 84
تَدَبَّرَ
To know or recognize something only at the end, after it has passed.
This resultative sense is distinct from deliberately examining something in order to understand it.
- Lane · entry 85
تَدَابَرَ
To turn one's back on one another; hence to sever relations, avoid one another, speak behind one another's backs, or withhold mutual assistance.
The meanings are reciprocal extensions of refusing to face or support the other party.
- Lane · entry 86
اِسْتَدْبَرَ
To turn one's back toward something or orient one's back to it.
For example, to turn one's back toward the qiblah; it is the opposite of facing something.
- Lane · entry 87
اِسْتَدْبَرَ
To come behind someone and throw or shoot at him.
A spatial pursuit construction.
- Lane · entry 87
اِسْتَدْبَرَ
To discover at the end of an affair what was not known at its beginning.
A hindsight construction concerning the eventual outcome of an affair.
- Lane · entry 87
اِسْتَدْبَرَ
To appropriate something exclusively for oneself in preference to others.
The figurative explanation is that the person turns his back on others and withdraws it from them.
- Lane · entry 87
دَبْرٌ
The place or quarter behind something; figuratively, to disregard speech or turn a deaf ear to it.
The figurative idiom treats the speech as being placed behind the ear.
- Lane · entry 88
دَبْرٌ
Death.
A figurative meaning related to departure and cessation.
- Lane · entry 88
دَبْرٌ
Constant or prolonged sleep.
An archaic figurative usage.
- Lane · entry 88
دَبْرٌ
A tract or patch of cultivated land, or the small irrigation channels between such tracts.
The word may denote the plots themselves or the channels and rivulets serving them.
- Lane · entry 88
دَبْرٌ
A mountain.
A reported usage associated with Abyssinian speech and accompanied by disagreement over the reading; it is not the ordinary Arabic branch of the root.
- Lane · entry 88
دَبْرٌ
A swarm of bees, hornets, or similar stinging insects.
The name is associated with the insects' weapons being at their hinder parts.
- Lane · entry 88
دَبْرٌ
The young of locusts.
A specialized collective noun.
- Lane · entry 88
دِبْرٌ
Much property, wealth, or numerous camels beyond ordinary reckoning.
The adjective or noun may be used with singular, dual, or plural مال without changing form.
- Lane · entry 90
دَبَرٌ
A tract or quarter of the western sky near sunset.
Used in an archaic astronomical or seasonal expression concerning the setting of the Pleiades.
- Lane · entry 91
دَبَرٌ
A gall or sore on the back of a horse, camel, or similar animal.
The sore is caused by a saddle or comparable burden; the term may also extend to a camel's callous breast projection.
- Lane · entry 91
دَبِرٌ
Having galls or sores on the back, said of a horse, camel, or similar animal.
The adjective describes the animal rather than the sore itself.
- Lane · entry 92
دَبِرٌ
In a fixed descriptive expression, ruined or perishing.
The analysis of this expression is disputed: it may be a possessive epithet or an imitative pairing with another adjective.
- Lane · entry 92
دُبُرٌ
The backside, buttocks, rump, or anus; in animals, the hinder genital or anal region.
An anatomical meaning distinct from the general rear side; its exact scope varies by animal and context.
- Lane · entry 93
دُبُرٌ
The hinder part or rear corner of a house, chamber, or tent.
- Lane · entry 93
عِتْقٌ عَنْ دُبُرٍ
Emancipation of a slave made effective after the owner's death.
A legal phrase corresponding to the Form II verb دَبَّرَ.
- Lane · entry 93
دَبْرَةٌ
A turn of evil fortune, defeat, or the adverse issue of an affair.
It may denote the defeat of an adversary, one's own defeat, or the result in whose favor an affair has turned.
- Lane · entry 94
دِبْرَةٌ
The direction or point toward which one turns one's back.
It is the opposite of قِبْلَةٌ and appears in idioms about lacking a clear way to proceed.
- Lane · entry 95
دَبَرِيٌّ
Backward, late, or occurring at the end of the relevant time.
It can describe a late answer or opinion, following behind, or performing prayer at the latest part of its time.
- Lane · entry 99
الدَّبَرَانُ
The Hyades, especially the star or asterism following the Pleiades.
An astronomical name explained through the star's following the Pleiades.
- Lane · entry 101
دُبَارٌ
Wednesday, or the night preceding Wednesday.
An ancient name, sometimes associated with the day's alleged ill fortune.
- Lane · entry 102
دِبَارٌ
The latter part or end of an affair, in contrast with its beginning.
Used in expressions distinguishing the beginning of an affair from its conclusion.
- Lane · entry 103
دَبُورٌ
The west or westerly wind, conceived as coming from behind.
The wind is associated with the direction of sunset and is traditionally contrasted with the easterly wind; it is also described as a harsh or unfavorable wind.
- Lane · entry 104
دَبِيرٌ
The part or action of twisting a thread, flax, or wool backward or away from the chest.
It is contrasted with قَبِيلٌ, the forward-twisted part or action; the same contrast can describe distinguishing one side or lineage from another.
- Lane · entry 105
دَبِيرٌ
An arrow that loses in a game of chance.
A specialized gambling term, opposed to the winning arrow.
- Lane · entry 105
دَبِيرٌ
The upper or hinder part of a camel's ear.
A specialized anatomical sense contrasted with the forward part called قَبِيلٌ.
- Lane · entry 105
دَابِرٌ
One who follows or comes last; the last remaining part of anything, including what is past.
This broader Classical usage includes the last person of a group, a past day such as yesterday, or the last item of an object; the Quranic remnant/root sense is listed separately under the Quranic form.
- Lane · entry 108
دَابِرٌ
An arrow that passes beyond the target and falls behind it.
A specialized active-participle description of an arrow's trajectory.
- Lane · entry 108
دَابِرٌ
An arrow or person that loses or is overcome in the game of chance.
The term may refer to a losing arrow, a repeatedly defeated player, or one who handles the arrows in the lottery game, according to differing explanations.
- Lane · entry 108
دَابِرٌ
The last arrow remaining in a quiver.
- Lane · entry 108
دَابِرَةٌ
The end of a tract of sand.
- Lane · entry 109
دَابِرَةٌ
A specialized hinder part: the rear part of a hoof or the back toe or striking appendage of a bird.
The exact anatomical referent varies by animal.
- Lane · entry 109
دَابِرَةٌ
A wrestling throw or maneuver involving a trick.
A technical usage in wrestling terminology.
- Lane · entry 109
إِدْبَارَةٌ
A slit or hanging strip in the hinder part of a ewe's, goat's, or camel's ear, turned backward.
The ear marking and the animal bearing it are both described with this terminology; the forward counterpart is إِقْبَالَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 112
أُدَابِرٌ
One who severs kinship ties, rejects what is said to him, or refuses admonition.
A strongly figurative characterization of one who turns away from relations or counsel.
- Lane · entry 113
مُدْبِرٌ
An aged she-camel whose former goodness has declined.
A figurative specialization of having gone into decline.
- Lane · entry 114
مُدْبِرَةٌ
Land on which rain has fallen only partially rather than generally.
The reading and contrast with the corresponding forward form are noted as uncertain in the lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 114
مُدَبَّرٌ
A slave whose emancipation has been made effective after the owner's death.
A legal passive participle of the Form II emancipation construction.
- Lane · entry 116
مَدْبُورٌ
Struck or affected by the westerly wind.
A passive participle referring to a person or people affected by الدَّبُور.
- Lane · entry 118
مَدْبُورٌ
Wounded or galled in the back.
The form can describe an animal or person bearing a back injury or sore.
- Lane · entry 118
مَدْبُورٌ
Possessing much property, wealth, or many camels.
A specialized adjective with a meaning unrelated to the passive sense of being affected or wounded.
- Lane · entry 118
مُدَابَرٌ
Situated behind or at the rear of a place of abode.
Used as the opposite of مُقَابَلٌ, a place or neighbor situated in front.
- Lane · entry 119
مُدَابَرَةٌ
Having the hinder part of the ear slit; figuratively, being of noble or pure lineage through both parents.
The lineage expression pairs مُقَابَلٌ and مُدَابَرٌ to refer to honorable descent from both sides.
- Lane · entry 119
مُدَابِرٌ
One who turns away from or shuns a companion.
A figurative active participle of the Form III reciprocal relation.
- Lane · entry 120
مُدَابِرٌ
A person or arrow overcome in the game of chance.
The lexical explanations include a repeatedly defeated player and, in one account, one who turns or shuffles the arrows.
- Lane · entry 120
مُسْتَدْبِرٌ
Noble or generous in both the earlier and later acquisition of honor.
An idiomatic expression represents honor as lying both behind and before the person.
- Lane · entry 121
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Lane discussion of the Quranic night expression includes alternate readings and interpretations; its bracketed historical citation notation has not been converted into an independently asserted modern location beyond the secure QAC occurrence for أَدْبَرَ at 74:33.
Some rare Classical branches are explicitly disputed or attributed to limited authorities, especially the Form I writing sense, the mountain sense of دَبْرٌ, the reported night reading, and certain specialized Form IV usages.
The Quranic participial group مُدَبِّرَات has been normalized to the singular citation form مُدَبِّرَةٌ; its Quranic occurrence remains the supplied feminine plural.