go-backs

Definitions

A supposed disease of children causing weight loss and lack of growth.

US, dated, plural, plural-only

Examples

“The scales are not yet asked to give⟳ a casting vote⟳, but the gap between the growth which mother wants and that which baby yields seems to widen, and the reason⟳ becomes more and more mysterious until some wiser dame whispers the dreaded words: "It has the Go-backs," and others echo, "It has the Go-backs."”

“If the length of the string is an exact multiple of the length of the foot, nothing is wrong, but if there is a remainder, however small, the baby has the Go-backs, and the extent of the malady is proportional to this remainder.”

CEFR level