Definition of "back"

back¹

/bæk/

adjective
not generally comparable, comparative more back, superlative most back
1. At or near the rear.
  Quotations
  Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
2. (predicative) Returned or restored to a previous place or condition.
3. Not current.
4. Situated away from the main or most frequented areas.
5. In arrears; overdue.
6. Moving or operating backward.
7. (comparable, phonetics) Pronounced with the highest part of the body of the tongue toward the back of the mouth, near the soft palate (most often describing a vowel).
adverb
comparative further back, superlative furthest back
1. (not comparable) To or in a previous condition or place.
  Quotations
  We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.
  1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
  From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.
  2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52
2. In a direction opposite to that in which someone or something is facing or normally pointing.
3. In a direction opposite to the usual or desired direction of movement or progress, physically or figuratively.
4. So as to reverse direction and return.
5. Towards, into or in the past.
6. Away from someone or something; at a distance.
7. Away from the front or from an edge.
  Quotations
  Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path […]. It twisted and turned, […] and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights. 'Twas the house I'd seen the roof of from the beach.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
8. So as to shrink, recede or move aside, or cause to do so.
9. In a manner that impedes.
10. (not comparable) In a reciprocal manner; in return.
11. (postpositive) Earlier, ago.
12. To a later point in time. See also put back.
postposition
1. Before now; ago.
  Quotations
  Our road was chiefly through woods, and part of it lay through the Hurricane-track, that is where a strong wind, some years back, opened a passage through the woods for a mile in breadth...
  1822, John Woods, Two Years' Residence in the Settlement on the English Prairie, in the Illinois Country, United States, page 138
noun
plural backs
1. The rear of the body, especially the part between the neck and the end of the spine and opposite the chest and belly.
  Quotations
  It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.
  1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […]
  1. The spine and associated tissues.
  2. (slang, uncountable) Large and attractive buttocks.
    Quotations
    Take the average black man and ask him that.She gotta pack much back.
    1992, “Baby Got Back”, Sir Mix-A-Lot (lyrics)
    He got his hand on her behind and caressed her firm, ample flesh. […] "You got some back on you, girl."
    2002, George Pelecanos, Right as Rain: A Novel, page 123
  3. (figurative) The part of a piece of clothing which covers the back.
  4. The backrest, the part of a piece of furniture which receives the human back.
  5. (obsolete) That part of the body that bears clothing. (Now used only in the phrase clothes on one's back.)
    Quotations
    Do thou but think / What 'tis to cram a maw or clothe a back / From such a filthy vice
    1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
2. That which is farthest away from the front.
  1. The side of any object which is opposite the front or useful side.
    The edge of a book which is bound.
    (printing) The inside margin of a page.
    Quotations
    Convenience and custom have familiarised us to the printed page being a little higher than the middle of the leaf, and to its having a little more margin at the fore edge than in the back.
    1841, William Savage, A Dictionary of the Art of Printing, Ayer Publishing, published 1965, page 472
    The side of a blade opposite the side used for cutting.
  2. The reverse side; the side that is not normally seen.
  3. Area behind, such as the backyard of a house.
  4. The part of something that goes last.
  5. (sports) In some team sports, a position behind most players on the team.
    Quotations
    […] Rovers were also aided by some poor defending from West Brom, whose lapses at the back undid their excellent work on the ball and condemned Roberto di Matteo's Baggies side to a third straight defeat.
    2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1-3 Blackburn”, in BBC
3. (figuratively) Upper part of a natural object which is considered to resemble an animal's back.
4. A support or resource in reserve.
  Quotations
  This project / Should have a back or second, that might hold, / If this should blast in proof.
  c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene vii]
5. (nautical) The keel and keelson of a ship.
6. (mining) The roof of a horizontal underground passage.
  Quotations
  The stope is kept full of broken ore, sufficient only being drawn to leave a working space between the floor of broken ore and the back of the stope.
  1911, Robert Bruce Brinsmade, Mining Without Timber, page 161
7. (slang, uncountable) Effort, usually physical.
8. A non-alcoholic drink (often water or a soft drink), to go with hard liquor or a cocktail.
9. Among leather dealers, one of the thickest and stoutest tanned hides.
  Quotations
  […] as delivered by a tanner the average weight of a back and two strips would be about 42 pounds […].
  1848, Maine Supreme Judicial Court, Maine Reports, volume 6, page 397
10. (swimming) Clipping of backstroke.
verb
third-person singular simple present backs, present participle backing, simple past and past participle backed
1. (intransitive) To go in the reverse direction.
  Quotations
  Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ […].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. (transitive) To support.
  Quotations
  And Netherlands, backed by a typically noisy and colourful travelling support, started the second period in blistering fashion and could have had four goals within 10 minutes
  2012 June 9, Owen Phillips, “Euro 2012: Netherlands 0-1 Denmark”, in BBC Sport
  The Senate Foreign Relations Committee backed the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022 by 17-5, despite concerns about the bill in U.S. President Joe Biden's administration and anger about the measure from Beijing.
  2022 September 15, “China lodges complaint as U.S. Senate panel advances Taiwan bill”, in Reuters‎, archived from the original on 15 September 2022, Asia Pacific
3. (nautical, of the wind) To change direction contrary to the normal pattern; that is, to shift anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere, or clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
4. (nautical, of a square sail) To brace the yards so that the wind presses on the front of the sail, to slow the ship.
5. (nautical, of an anchor) To lay out a second, smaller anchor to provide additional holding power.
6. (UK, of a hunting dog) To stand still behind another dog which has pointed.
7. (transitive) To push or force backwards.
  Quotations
  "The soil seems to be very good; the creek runs through the reserve, and has a dam thrown across it, which backs the water for a very considerable distance, and enables them to irrigate a portion of their cultivation block.
  1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 279
8. (transitive, obsolete) To get upon the back of; to mount.
  Quotations
  I will back him [a horse] straight.
  c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii]
  The horse was the grey stallion he aye rode, the very beast he had ridden for many a wager with the wild lads of the Cross Keys. No man but himself durst back it, and it had lamed many a hostler lad and broke two necks in its day.
  1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
9. (transitive, obsolete) To place or seat upon the back.
  Quotations
  Great Jupiter, upon his eagle backed, / Appeared to me.
  1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene v]
10. To make a back for; to furnish with a back.
11. To adjoin behind; to be at the back of.
  Quotations
  He hath a garden circummured with brick,Whose western side is with a vineyard backed
  c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene i]
  the chalk cliffs which back the beach
  1877, Thomas Henry Huxley, Physiography: An Introduction to the Study of Nature
  So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
  1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company
  So we continue climbing to the saddle of the Kleine Scheidegg, where ahead there comes into view the wide expanse of the Grindelwald valley, backed by the snowy crown of the Wetterhorn.
  1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 752
12. To write upon the back of, possibly as an endorsement.
13. (law, of a justice of the peace) To sign or endorse (a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender).
14. To row backward with (oars).
15. (MLE, transitive) To draw from behind the back [+accusative = a knife etc.] (as also back out).
  Quotations
  Sticks and Stones may break my bonesNot when I back this botty
  2017 August 4, “Sticks and Stones”‎performed by Zone 2 (Kwengface x Trizzac x PS)
  When I back this blade, wallahiThe hearts get beat like they just saw jihadi
  2020 August 13, TwoLzz (lyrics and music), “TwentyTwo”‎, 1:14–1:18
16. (Nigeria, transitive) To carry an infant on one's back.

back²

/bæk/

noun
plural backs
1. A large shallow vat; a cistern, tub, or trough, used by brewers, distillers, dyers, picklers, gluemakers, and others, for mixing or cooling wort, holding water, hot glue, etc.
2. A ferryboat.

Definition of "back"

back1

adjective

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postposition

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back2

noun

back¹

back²