Meaning of back | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A surname.
2. 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.
3. At or near the rear
4. The rear of the body, especially the part between the neck and the end of the spine and opposite the chest and belly.
5. A surname
6. To withdraw from a position; retreat.
7. A settlement on the Isle of Lewis, Western Isles council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NB4840).
8. A ferryboat.
9. Returned or restored to a previous place or condition
10. The spine and associated tissues.
11. backstroke
12. A settlement on the Isle of Lewis, Western Isles council area, Scotland
13. To withdraw from a position, opinion, or commitment.
14. Not current
15. Large and attractive buttocks.
    slang, uncountable
16. To retreat or draw away.
17. Situated away from the main or most frequented areas
18. The part of a piece of clothing which covers the back.
    figuratively
19. Consecutively and without interruption: presented three speeches back to back.
20. In arrears; overdue
21. The backrest, the part of a piece of furniture which receives the human back.
22. In one's absence or without one's knowledge.
23. That part of the body that bears clothing. (Now used only in the phrase clothes on one's back.)
    obsolete
24. To be prepared or ready to support or vouch for someone, as in a crisis.
25. That which is farthest away from the front.
26. To be angry or irritated.
27. The side of any object which is opposite the front or useful side.
28. No longer nagging or urging someone to do something.
29. The edge of a book which is bound.
30. Persistently nagging or urging someone to do something.
31. The inside margin of a page.
32. A shallow vat or tub used chiefly by brewers.
33. The side of a blade opposite the side used for cutting.
34. The reverse side; the side that is not normally seen.
35. Area behind, such as the backyard of a house or the rear storeroom of a retail store.
36. The part of something that goes last.
37. In some team sports, a position behind most players on the team.
38. The upper part of a natural object which is considered to resemble an animal’s back.
    figuratively
39. A support or resource in reserve.
40. The keel and keelson of a ship.
41. The roof of a horizontal underground passage.
42. Effort, usually physical.
    slang, uncountable
43. A non-alcoholic drink (often water or a soft drink), to go with hard liquor or a cocktail.
44. Among leather dealers, one of the thickest and stoutest tanned hides.
45. Clipping of backstroke.
    abbreviation, alt-of, clipping

Equivalents

Examples

“Could you please scratch my back?”

“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.”

“I hurt my back lifting those crates.”

“Take the average black man and ask him that. She gotta pack much back.”

“He got his hand on her behind and caressed her firm, ample flesh.[…]“You got some back on you, girl.””

“Back so big, look like your jeans shrunk in the wash / And we don't really need Netflix, I'mma give you something to watch”

“I still need to finish the back of your dress.”

“Can you fix the back of this chair?”

“Do thou but think / What ’tis to cram a maw or clothe a back / From such a filthy vice”

“He sat in the back of the room.”

“Turn the book over and look at the back.”

“The titles are printed on the backs of the books.”

“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.”

“Tap it with the back of your knife.”

“I hung the clothes on the back of the door.”

“We’ll meet out in the back of the library.”

“Are you sure you're totally out of hair gel? Could you please check in the back?”

“The car was near the back of the train.”

“The backs were lined up in an I formation.”

“[…]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.”

“The small boat raced over the backs of the waves.”

“This project / Should have a back or second, that might hold, / If this should blast in proof.”

“The ship’s back broke in the pounding surf.”

“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.”

“Put some back into it!”

“Could I get a martini with a water back?”

“[…]as delivered by a tanner the average weight of a back and two strips would be about 42 pounds[…].”

CEFR level