Backpiece to Baff
Backpiece
(Back"piece` Back"plate`) n. [Back, n. or a. + piece, plate.] A piece, or plate, which forms
the back of anything, or which covers the back; armor for the back.
Backrack
(Back"rack Back"rag) n. See Bacharach.
Backs
(Backs) n. pl. Among leather dealers, the thickest and stoutest tanned hides.
Backsaw
(Back"saw`) n. [2d back, n. + saw.] A saw (as a tenon saw) whose blade is stiffened by an
added metallic back.
Backset
(Back"set`) n. [Back, adv. + set.]
1. A check; a relapse; a discouragement; a setback.
2. Whatever is thrown back in its course, as water.
Slackwater, or the backset caused by the overflow.
Harper's Mag.
Backset
(Back"set`), v. t. To plow again, in the fall; — said of prairie land broken up in the spring. [Western
U.S.]
Backsettler
(Back"set"tler) n. [Back, a. + settler.] One living in the back or outlying districts of a community.
The English backsettlers of Leinster and Munster.
Macaulay.
Backsheesh
(||Back"sheesh`, ||Back"shish`) n. [Pers. bakhshish, fr. bakhshidan to give.] In Egypt
and the Turkish empire, a gratuity; a "tip".
Backside
(Back"side`) n. [Back, a. + side.] The hinder part, posteriors, or rump of a person or animal.
Backside (one word) was formerly used of the rear part or side of any thing or place, but in such senses
is now two words.
Backsight
(Back"sight`) n. [Back, adv. + sight.] (Surv.) The reading of the leveling staff in its unchanged
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.
Backslide
(Back"slide") v. i. [imp. Backslid ; p. p. Backslidden Backslid; p. pr. & vb. n. Backsliding.]
[Back, adv. + slide.] To slide back; to fall away; esp. to abandon gradually the faith and practice of a
religion that has been professed.
Backslider
(Back"slid"er) n. One who backslides.
Backsliding
(Back"slid"ing), a. Slipping back; falling back into sin or error; sinning.
Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord.
Jer. iii. 14.
Backsliding
(Back"slid"ing), n. The act of one who backslides; abandonment of faith or duty.
Our backslidings are many.
Jer. xiv. 7.
Backstaff
(Back"staff`) n. An instrument formerly used for taking the altitude of the heavenly bodies, but
now superseded by the quadrant and sextant; — so called because the observer turned his back to the
body observed.
Back stairs
(Back" stairs`) (-stârz`) n.. Stairs in the back part of a house, as distinguished from the front
stairs; hence, a private or indirect way.
