backwater
Americannoun
-
water held or forced back, as by a dam, flood, or tide.
-
a place or state of stagnant backwardness.
This area of the country is a backwater that continues to resist progress.
-
an isolated, peaceful place.
-
a stroke executed by pushing a paddle forward, causing a canoe to move backward.
noun
-
a body of stagnant water connected to a river
-
water held or driven back, as by a dam, flood, or tide
-
an isolated, backward, or intellectually stagnant place or condition
verb
Etymology
Origin of backwater
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.
Ms. Allen concedes their regionalism but argues that they were wiser for understanding that a “provincial backwater offers as full a panoply of human folly, nobility, tragedy, and absurdity as any great metropolis.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026
By 2001 the paper profits pushed Ireland’s gross domestic product per capita ahead of Britain’s, fed a housing boom, and turned Dublin from a dirty backwater into a glossy tourist hub.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 7, 2025
The exact coordinates of this backwater are a bit hazy, but Storyteller 2 helpfully pinpoints the locale as “a place where being from somewhere is who you are.”
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 22, 2025
Decades of investment in infrastructure and training have taken China from a sporting backwater to a medal-winning machine that recently equalled the United States with 40 golds at the Paris Olympics.
From BBC • Mar. 26, 2025
Too clever to waste away in that backwater, he said.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
