noun
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Also called: back crawl. swimming
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a stroke performed on the back, using backward circular strokes of each arm alternately and flipper movements of the feet
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( as modifier )
the backstroke champion
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a return stroke or blow
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a backhanded stroke
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Leisure:Bell-ringing the upward movement of the bell rope as the bell swings back and forth Compare handstroke
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of backstroke
Explanation
When you swim the backstroke, you lie on your back in the water and move your arms up and back over your head while you kick your feet. It's hard to see where you're going when you do the backstroke. If you swim competitively on a swim team, the backstroke is one of the four official strokes for racing. Some swimmers prefer the backstroke because it's easier to breathe than when you swim face-down, though it's harder to tell how close you are to the pool wall. You can also use backstroke as a verb: "I'll just backstroke over to the shallow end and say hi to my friend."
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:
Her American record time of 1 minute, 8.98 seconds seconds in the S10 100-meter backstroke at the 2024 U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Another teenager, Italian Sara Curtis, also shone as she broke the women's 50m backstroke world record with a time of 26.63 seconds.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
Elsewhere at the championships, Great Britain's Katie Shanahan dominated the 200m backstroke to win gold by 1.49secs with a time of two minutes 06.13secs.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Australian Kaylee McKeown clocked a sizzling 25.42sec to win the women's 50m backstroke at the World Cup short course meeting in Carmel, Indiana, on Friday.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2025
So when I surfaced, I flipped face up and started to do the backstroke, staring up at the sky.
From "Lost Boy, Lost Girl" by John Bul Dau
She became the first swimmer ever to sweep all three backstrokes at the worlds.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 29, 2023
Four years later, Larkin, 22, is the reigning world champion and the world No. 1 in the 100 and 200 backstrokes.
From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2016
“And I’m sure that over there at the Goldfish Market” — so named for the many aquariums selling goldfish and tropical fish — “the goldfish are probably swimming backstrokes now.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 8, 2014
The few swimming duets she performed, as with Montalban in Neptune’s Daughter, comprised little more than synchronized backstrokes and ardent glances.
From Time ● Jun. 13, 2013
A quarter-mile upstream, Mr. Barra flipped over and backstroked.
From New York Times ● Jul. 16, 2011
He backstroked powerfully down the pool, rolled and executed a strong crawl.
From Time Magazine Archive
Results Supercross Semi 1 The Rock, Mike LaRocco snatched the lead on lap two of the first Supercross Semi, and backstroked in for a relatively mindless victory.
From Time Magazine Archive
Not that we’ve been backstroking in sun-drenched serenity.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 18, 2022
She loves backstroking, in particular, looking up at the sky and the birds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2021
They trade playful banter and lines from Shel Silverstein poems, generally backstroking through a stream of meet-cute blah-dee-blah without meeting or connecting on FaceTime.
From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2021
While Toussaint is the daughter of an Olympic backstroking champion, both she and Kamminga attribute their stroke choices to their body sizes: they are shorter and stockier than their sprint teammates.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 21, 2021
He was last seen backstroking away in the icy water.
From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2021
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.
