Search the Dictionary

A backhanded blow.

A method of tripping by getting the leg back of the opponent's heel on the outside and pulling forward while pushing his body back; a throw made in this way. -- v. t.

A building behind the main building. Specifically: A privy; a necessary.

The act of moving backward, or of putting or moving anything backward.

A rebate or chase in masonry left to receive a permanent slab or other filling.

The distance through which one part of connected machinery, as a wheel, piston, or screw, can be moved without moving the connected parts, resulting from looseness in fitting or from wear; also, the jarring or reflex motion caused in badly fitting machinery by irregularities in velocity or a reverse of motion.…

Without a back.

A large stick of wood, forming the of a fire on the hearth. [U.S.] There was first a backlog, from fifteen to four and twenty inches in diameter and five feet long, imbedded in the ashes. S. G. Goodrich.

A piece, or plate which forms the back of anything, or which covers the back; armor for the back.

See Bacharach.

Among leather dealers, the thickest and stoutest tanned hides.

A saw (as a tenon saw) whose blade is stiffened by an added metallic back.

A check; a relapse; a discouragement; a setback.

One living in the back or outlying districts of a community. The English backsettlers of Leinster and Munster. Macaulay.

In Egypt and the Turkish empire, a gratuity; a "tip".

The hinder part, posteriors, or rump of a person or animal.

position when the leveling instrument has been taken to a new position; a sight directed backwards to a station previously occupied. Cf. Foresight, n., 3.

To slide back; to fall away; esp. to abandon gradually the faith and practice of a religion that has been professed.

One who backslides.

Slipping back; falling back into sin or error; sinning. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord. Jer. iii. 14.