pull in one's horns vs back away

pull in one's horns and back away both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
pull in one's horns	No	No	Yes	No
back away	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, pull in one's horns and back away are synonyms defined as:

pull in one's horns and back away: make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity

Other synonyms of pull in one's horns include back out, crawfish, crawfish out, pull back, retreat, withdraw.

pull in one's horns (verb)	back away (verb)
make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity	make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity