1
general::
Phrase(s): double back (on someone or something)
[for a person or animal] to reverse motion, moving toward (rather than away from) someone or something. (Refers primarily to a person or animal that is being pursued by someone or a group.) • The deer doubled back on the hunter. • The robber doubled back on the police, and they lost track of him. • I doubled back on my own trail.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
2
general::
Reverse one's course, go back the way one has come. For example, The officer lost the suspect, who had doubled back on him. This term, at first put simply as to double, is used largely to describe a way of evading pursuit. [Late 1500s]
American Heritage Idioms