back number
noun
an out-of-date issue of a serial publication.
Informal. anything out-of-date.
QUIZZES
DO YOU KNOW THIS VOCABULARY FROM "THE HANDMAID'S TALE"?
"The Handmaid's Tale" was required reading for many of us in school. Everyone else has probably watched the very popular and addictive TV show. Do you remember this vocabulary from the book, and do you know what these terms mean?
Question 1 of 10
decorum
Origin of back number
An Americanism dating back to 1805–15
Words nearby back number
back marker, back matter, back molding, back mutation, back nine, back number, back o' beyond, back o' bourke, back of, back of beyond, back of bourke
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020
Example sentences from the Web for back number
British Dictionary definitions for back number
back number
noun
an issue of a newspaper, magazine, etc, that appeared on a previous date
informal a person or thing considered to be old-fashioned
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Idioms and Phrases with back number
back number
Dated, out of style. For example, That hat is really a back number, or The game has changed so fast that a player who returns to the circuit after several years' absence usually finds he or she is a back number. This term originally referred to back issues of periodicals, which are no longer newsworthy. [Late 1800s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.