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backswept

American  
[bak-swept] / ˈbækˌswɛpt /

adjective

  1. slanting backward or away from the front.

  2. Aeronautics. sweptback.


backswept British  
/ ˈbækˌswɛpt /

adjective

  1. slanting backwards

  2. another word for sweptback

"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

Etymology

Origin of backswept

First recorded in 1915–20; back 2 + swept


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:

Some images show her playing boss, her hair backswept, wearing items including a black leather trench coat and a scoop neck midi dress.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 3, 2024

Maybe it was fate: with his rough-hewn features and leonine fall of backswept hair, Gold’s profile bears an uncanny resemblance to the man, Benjamin Franklin, depicted on the medal itself.

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 24, 2018

The flowery plain was scattered with caribou antlers: the delicate backswept branching antlers of female caribou, the sturdier antlers of male caribou, sometimes with mosses growing on the older ones.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 27, 2015

His long, backswept hair, dyed black since the age of 16, frames a face that has been described both as “angelic” and “hideous to the eye,” the latter by Cave himself, in song.

From New York Times ● Jul. 1, 2014

Trespasser has an axe-like blade on top of its head, Knifehead has a blade-like snout, Mutavore has an aft-curving chin blade and backswept cranial horn, Scunner has paired lateral horns, and so on.

From Scientific American ● Jul. 25, 2013

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