Advertisement
Advertisement
backwater
[ bak-waw-ter, -wot-er ]
noun
- water held or forced back, as by a dam, flood, or tide.
- a place or state of stagnant backwardness:
This area of the country is a backwater that continues to resist progress.
- an isolated, peaceful place.
- a stroke executed by pushing a paddle forward, causing a canoe to move backward.
backwater
/ ˈbækˌwɔːtə /
noun
- a body of stagnant water connected to a river
- water held or driven back, as by a dam, flood, or tide
- an isolated, backward, or intellectually stagnant place or condition
verb
- intr to reverse the direction of a boat, esp to push the oars of a rowing boat
Discover More
Word History and Origins
Origin of backwater1
Discover More
Example Sentences
When you talk about midtown Manhattan as being a commercial backwater, I find it mind boggling.
They both think that Los Angeles, long maligned as a culinary backwater, is the best food city in America.
North Korea is an economic wreck and a technological backwater.
The president is likely headed to a bureaucratic backwater as his famed office is renovated.
In contrast, says Aftergood, “security has traditionally been a backwater that hires former military personnel and muscle men.”
The rugged pioneer community had become, I suddenly saw, a rural backwater.
Once swung out of that backwater they had been swept away, powerless to know where they went, to guess what was their destination.
At last only fourteen of the English were left alive and they got hopelessly penned in a backwater.
Why, you both look as you did that night the backwater of the South Fork came into our cabin.
The blue heron rose heavily from the backwater, and winged his slow flight high above the trees.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Browse