backspace
Americanverb (used without object)
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to shift the carriage or typing element of a typewriter one space backward by depressing a special key.
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Computers. to move the cursor, printhead, etc., toward the beginning of the data.
noun
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the space made by backspacing.
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Also called backspacer,. Also called backspace key. the labeled key on a typewriter or computer keyboard used for backspacing.
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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backspacesimple
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backspacessimple
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have backspacedperfect
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has backspacedperfect
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am backspacingprogressive
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are backspacingprogressive
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is backspacingprogressive
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have been backspacingperfect progressive
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has been backspacingperfect progressive
Past
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backspacedsimple
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had backspacedperfect
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was backspacingprogressive
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were backspacingprogressive
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had been backspacingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of backspace
Explanation
A backspace is a keyboard stroke that moves your cursor backwards. When you type the wrong word in an email, you can use the backspace to go back and change it. You can use the word backspace for the keyboard key itself, and also to mean "hit the backspace." If you're helping a friend edit an essay on her laptop, you might say, "Backspace to that first paragraph so I can read it again." The word's been around since the late 19th century, when it referred to typewriters — the backspace was the latest in new technology in 1899.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"It's difficult to see over text, and in person you can see the bigger picture. It can be so easy to type your feelings and then just hit backspace."
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2022
I several times hit the Num Lock key by accident when I’d meant to hit backspace.
From The Verge ● Apr. 15, 2022
“While attempting to reply to her text, I noticed several random letters already in the reply box, and tried to backspace them out,” wrote J.S.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 27, 2021
“Presumably, you could just hit the backspace button on the file, put in a new file name, and it would let you download that.”
From Salon ● Nov. 6, 2018
And some of us today recoil every time we touch the backspace key.
From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
In his wonderful book The Invisible Constitution, Prof. Laurence Tribe explains why the Constitution is written "only in a forward-moving manner that never backspaces to erase a word that went before."
From Slate ● Jan. 7, 2011
If you “suspect” because that’s what your friend indicated or hinted at, then picture me backspacing everything and saying yeah, if that’s what they want, then intentional hangouts will have to stop.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 21, 2023
This is annoying because I have to keeep backspacing and deleting e’s.
From Washington Post ● May 21, 2020
I found quickly that the mechanics of writing, of my fingertips jabbing at the letters, served to somehow focus me by funneling my attention, backspacing and typing my way into my thoughts.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2013
There was no screen, but backspacing to correct an error on the page also resulted in the data being corrected on the tape.
From Slate ● Mar. 1, 2013
Type a capital A. You'll be given a suggested name for the bookmark enty, which you can change if you want by backspacing over the suggestion and typing in your own.
From Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet by Electronic Frontier Foundation
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
