backslap
/ˈbæk.slæp/
backslap verb: to enthusiastically affirm or congratulate a person, especially by patting them on the back.
Verb
backslap (third-person singular simple present backslaps, present participle backslapping, simple past and past participle backslapped)
- To enthusiastically affirm or congratulate a person, especially by patting them on the back.
- In public he put on a performance that was at once outraged and outrageous, but usually he did not carry grudges into his private life. Exuding the backslapping air of a socializer who loved to gamble and drink, he could not understand why people whose careers he had ruined and publicly ridiculed...1983 August 13, John Kyper, “Flamboyant Inquisitor”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 5, page 14
Forms of backslap
| third-person singular present | backslaps |
|---|---|
| present participle | backslapping |
| past participle | backslapped |
| past | backslapped |
Origin of backslap
From back + slap.
Words formed from backslap
Questions about backslap
- What does backslap mean?
- Backslap means to enthusiastically affirm or congratulate a person, especially by patting them on the back.
- What part of speech is backslap?
- Backslap is a verb.
- How do you pronounce backslap?
- Backslap is pronounced /ˈbæk.slæp/.
- What is the past tense of backslap?
- The past tense of backslap is backslapped.
Words near backslap in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: backslap (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “backslap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/backslap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.