backwash
Americannoun
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backwashes
plural
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Nautical. water thrown backward by the motion of oars, propellers, paddle wheels, etc.
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Aeronautics. the portion of the wash of an aircraft that flows to the rear, usually created by the power plant.
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a condition, usually undesirable, that continues long after the event which caused it.
- Synonyms:
- upshot, result, consequence, aftermath
verb (used with object)
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backwashes,
present (3rd person singular)
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backwashed,
past participle, past
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backwashing
present participle
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to affect, as by hitting, rocking, or splashing, with a backwash.
a powerful cutter backwashing the skiers.
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to clean out (a clogged filter) by reversing the flow of fluid.
Backwash the swimming pool's filters regularly.
noun
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a sucking movement of water, such as that of retreating waves Compare swash
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water washed backwards by the motion of oars or other propelling devices
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the backward flow of air set up by an aircraft's engines
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a condition resulting from a previous event; repercussion
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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backwashsimple
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backwashessimple
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have backwashedperfect
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has backwashedperfect
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am backwashingprogressive
-
are backwashingprogressive
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is backwashingprogressive
-
have been backwashingperfect progressive
-
has been backwashingperfect progressive
Past
-
backwashedsimple
-
had backwashedperfect
-
was backwashingprogressive
-
were backwashingprogressive
-
had been backwashingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of backwash
Vocabulary lists containing backwash
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:
The Royal Family has had a difficult start to 2024 - uncertain in the face of health problems and surrounded by a backwash of rumour and speculation.
From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2024
Rather than absorbing wave energy, seawalls and riprap can create backwash that collides with incoming waves, engineers realized, setting off supercharged turbulence that chews away at shoreline protection.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 20, 2022
Federal Reserve are all - to differing degrees - now facing a backwash from years of policy-driven but lucrative balance sheet expansion.
From Reuters ● Oct. 27, 2022
“This generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space,” Kennedy declared.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 23, 2021
So, when the backwash spewed him up again, he swam out and along, and scanned the coast for some landspit that made a breakwater.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
She hired an assistant who sanitizes the tables, outdoor bathroom and shower, and backwashes the pool between events.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 16, 2021
The water plunges between razor-sharp rocks, whipped to a froth by backwashes, submerged logs and even a sunken locomotive that derailed into the river years ago.
From Time Magazine Archive
Broad currents of thought go on their way without being deflected by backwashes, or eddies or spurts into blind passages.
From Prisoner for Blasphemy by G. W. (George William) Foote
At that season the river had sunk into its narrowest bed, and there were backwashes and sluggish channels full of light-green tinted water.
From Khartoum Campaign, 1898 or the Re-Conquest of the Soudan by Bennet Burleigh
In spite of the stationary eddies or momentary backwashes we observe here and there, its stream moves in a definite direction, ever swelling and broadening.
From A New Philosophy: Henri Bergson by Vincent Benson
On that backwashed clay, the Mathews clan would scratch out a living grazing livestock.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2017
The spark is seen first like a lone star in a black sky, then a flame front spreading and backwashing around the base of the chamber.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
