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One who, or that which, backs; especially one who backs a person or thing in a contest.

Same as Backsheesh.

The backside; the rump. [Low]

rface. Barrels with the bottom knocked out. Macaulay. No two chairs were alike; such high backs and low backs and leather bottoms and worsted bottoms. W. Irving.

See Backsheesh.

Free from bushes; bare. O'er the long backs of the bushless downs. Tennyson.

Chippendale, attempting to adapt medieval details. The forms, as of the cabriole and chairbacks, often resemble Queen Anne. In chairs, the seat is widened at the front, and the back toward the top widened and bent backward, except in Chinese Chippendale, in which the backs are usually rectangular. -- Chip"pen*dal*ism (…

A flatterer or sycophant. [Obs.] "Take heed of these clawbacks." Latimer.

Crooked; bent. [Obs.] Crooked backs and crump shoulders. Jer. Taylor.

to which one has attached himself; desertion; failure in duty; a falling away; apostasy; backsliding. "Defection and falling away from God." Sir W. Raleigh. The general defection of the whole realm. Sir J. Davies.

ely that of a crank having the same throw. Back eccentric, the eccentric that reverses or backs the valve gear and the engine. -- Fore eccentric, the eccentric that imparts a forward motion to the valve gear and the engine.

s. (b) (Shoemaking) A plane for edging soles. -- Edge play, a kind of swordplay in which backswords or cutlasses are used, and the edge, rather than the point, is employed. -- Edge rail. (Railroad) (a) A rail set on edge; -- applied to a rail of more depth than width. (b) A guard rail by the side of the main rail at…

of the family Balænopteridæ, characterized by a prominent fin on the back. The common finbacks of the New England coast are Sibbaldius tectirostris and S. tuberosus.

Any sight or reading of the leveling staff, except the backsight; any sight or bearing taken by a compass or theodolite in a forward direction.

ubdue; to cause to pass away; to cure; -- said of a disease or a wound. I will heal their backsliding. Hos. xiv. 4.

der of fishes having an incomplete or reduced branchial apparatus. It includes the sticklebacks, the flutemouths, and Fistularia.

rge, crested, Asiatic pheasants, belonging to the genus Euplocamus, and allied to the firebacks.

kingly couch." Shak. The kingliest kings are crowned with thorn. G. Massey. Leave kingly backs to cope with kingly cares. Cowper.

Figuratively, to unite in the closest and most endearing relation. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you. Jer. iii. 14. To marry ropes. (Naut.) (a) To place two ropes along side of each other so that they may be grasped and hauled on at the same time. (b) To join two ropes end to end s…

To transport in a pack, or in the manner of a pack (i. e., on the backs of men or beasts). [Western U.S.]