backside

See also: back-side

English

Etymology

From back + side

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈbækˌsaɪd/
  • (file)

Noun

backside (plural backsides)

  1. The back side of anything, the part opposite its front, particularly:
    1. The back side of an estate: the backyard and outbuildings behind a main house, especially (Britain dialectal, euphemistic) an outhouse.
      The building's backside faced an alley and was covered in grime and graffiti.
    2. (euphemistic) A person's buttocks.
      Having ridden the horse all day for the first time, I had painful blisters on my backside.
      • c. 1500, Robin Hood, Bk. ii, Ch. iv, p. 236:
        With an arrowe so broad, He shott him into the backe-syde.
      • 1992 May 4, The Independent, p. 13:
        Our toilet was an outside netty shared between two or three families, where you sat on a hole and hoped the cat wouldn't jump at your backside.
    3. (obsolete) The back side of a page: a verso.
  2. (figuratively) The reverse or opposite of anything.
    • 1645, John Milton, Colasterion, page 26:
      ...to endorse him on the backside of posterity, not a golden, but a brazen Asse...

Synonyms

Derived terms

  • get off one's backside
  • my backside
  • sit on one's backside

Translations

References

  • "backside, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Anagrams

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