kickback
a percentage of income given to a person in a position of power or influence as payment for having made the income possible: usually considered improper or unethical.
a rebate, usually given secretively by a seller to a buyer or to one who influenced the buyer.
the practice of an employer or a person in a supervisory position of taking back a portion of the wages due workers.
a response, usually vigorous.
a sudden, uncontrolled movement of a machine, tool, or other device, as on starting or in striking an obstruction: A kickback from a chain saw can be dangerous.
Origin of kickback
1Other words from kickback
- an·ti·kick·back, adjective
Words Nearby kickback
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use kickback in a sentence
After kickbacks, rows, and flys, my muscles were tight—the type of tightness I’d feel after doing the same exercises with 40-pound dumbbells—and pulsing intermittently as Ruiz adjusted the machine’s dials.
While the complaints alleged “possible kickbacks and collusion,” they did not provide “any firsthand information related to criminal activity,” according to the report.
How the Justice Department came to investigate Rep. Matt Gaetz | Matt Zapotosky, Michael Scherer | April 15, 2021 | Washington PostIn 2014, DaVita agreed to pay $350 million to settle claims that it had provided illegal kickbacks to doctors.
Is Dialysis a Test Case of Medicare for All? (Ep. 457) | Stephen J. Dubner | April 8, 2021 | FreakonomicsIn 2014, the firm agreed to pay more than $350 million to settle claims that it had given illegal kickbacks to doctors in exchange for patient referrals.
Is Dialysis a Test Case of Medicare for All? (Ep. 457) | Stephen J. Dubner | April 8, 2021 | FreakonomicsThese stores used their scale to leverage kickbacks and discounts from suppliers and deployed “loss leaders” — popular items with deeply slashed prices — both to ruin competitors and entice customers into the store.
Can a grand bargain empower Amazon’s workers and limit corporate power? | Nelson Lichtenstein | March 25, 2021 | Washington Post
I never had a single kickback/redlined report at Southwest division and Sgt. XXXX and Sgt. XXXX can testify to that.
Rogue L.A. Cop’s Facebook Manifesto: ‘You Will Now Live the Life of Prey’ | The Daily Beast | February 8, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTAnother Russian word the actor might learn, the commenters proposed, was raspilit, or "kickback."
Gérard Depardieu After Receiving Russian Citizenship: I Love Putin! | Anna Nemtsova | January 4, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTSo there's the memory of the "Cornhusker kickback" with nothing to show for it.
Let's Put the Nebraska Senate Race in Proper Context | Justin Green | October 30, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTHis involvement in the ill-fated "Cornhusker kickback" remains politically poisonous back home, and that won't be changing soon.
Then Mubarak and his family and their allies would see benefits in return, presumably some kickback or a share of the profits.
The nerves of Average Jones gave a sharp "kickback," like a mis-cranked motor-car.
Average Jones | Samuel Hopkins AdamsThe "kickback" would have certainly killed or wounded us both.
The Red Watch | J. A. CurrieI want to set down what happened in case there's ever a kickback although I don't think there ever will be.
The Beasts in the Void | Paul W. Fairman
British Dictionary definitions for kickback
/ (ˈkɪkˌbæk) /
a strong reaction
part of an income paid to a person having influence over the size or payment of the income, esp by some illegal arrangement
(intr) to have a strong reaction
(intr) (esp of a gun) to recoil
to pay a kickback to (someone)
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
Other Idioms and Phrases with kickback
Recoil unexpectedly and violently, as in This rifle kicks back a lot when you fire it. [Early 1800s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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