backwater
backwater noun: the water held back by a dam or other obstruction.
Noun
backwater (plural backwaters)
- The water held back by a dam or other obstruction.
- […] The backwater separates the main line from Hinksey marshalling yards1956 May, “Beside a Thames Backwater”, in Railway Magazine, page unnumbered, frontispiece
- A remote place: somewhere that remains unaffected by new events, progresses, ideas, etc; any field of endeavor that figuratively resembles such a place.
- Near-synonyms: (place) jerkwater town, one-horse town, Podunk; see also Thesaurus:remote place
- an academic backwater
- Synonyms:
- jerkwater town, one-horse town, Podunk, Isolated town, bump in the road, jerkwater, jerk-water, wide spot in the road, Isolated place, arse end of nowhere
- A rowing stroke in which the oar is pushed forward to stop the boat; see back water
- Water used in the papermaking process. Recycled to reduce usage of fresh water, and usually containing residual amounts of chemicals and fibres.
- The back-water (overflow) can be used for "thinning down" the chests when emptying. If "Wastive" does this, his mind will be at ease regarding waste of pulp, and his machine-men will be happy and do their work much better than by trying to use all the back-water on the paper machine.1908, An Old Machineman, “Re Back-water Query.”, in The World's Paper Trade Review, page 14
- Synonyms:
- overflow
Verb
backwater (third-person singular simple present backwaters, present participle backwatering, simple past and past participle backwatered)
- To row or paddle a backwater stroke.
- To vacillate on a long-held position.
Proper noun capitalized: Backwater
Backwater
- A locality in the Armidale council area, north-eastern New South Wales, Australia.
backwater meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Malayalam
backwater in Tamil
- உப்பங்கழி, காயல், பின்னீர், அணையின் தேங்கு நீர், கட்டு நீர், ஆற்றேரக்குட்டை
backwater in Urdu
- دور افتاد جگہ
backwater in Telugu
- backwater
- కరవాక karavāka
backwater in Malayalam
- കായൽ, പുഴ
More languagesFewer languages
- backwater in Kannada
- ಹಿನ್ನೀರು hinnīru
- backwater in Malay
- negeri antah-berantah
Examples of backwater in a sentence
- Usually, however, this line, which once had a monopoly of all the traffic to Bournemouth, is a quiet backwater carrying a purely local traffic.1953 August, David R. Webb, “By Rail to Bournemouth”, in Railway Magazine, page 556:
- It's a volume for those who delight in exploring the backwaters of nineteenth-century opera.1978, National Opera Association –, The Opera Journal, page 29:
- Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.1979 October 12, Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, London: Pan Books, →ISBN:
- What was once the industrial heart of Uruguay is now a quiet riverside backwater where nothing much happens—the shops don't bother to open until midday and not at all if it's raining.2003 September 21, Tom Hall, “Sunset in a one-pie town”, in The Observer, →ISSN:
Synonyms of backwater
- jerkwater town
- one-horse town
- Podunk
- Isolated town
- bump in the road
- jerkwater
- jerk-water
- wide spot in the road
- Isolated place
- arse end of nowhere
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- back of beyond
- back forty
- backcountry
- backwoods
- provinces
- beyond the black stump
- boondock
- boondocks
- boonies
- bumfuck nowhere
- dullsville
- edge of the earth
- edge of the world
- ends of the earth
- ends of the world
- hinterland
- middle of nowhere
- north forty
- off the beaten track
- out of the way
- sticks
- the sticks
- Actual places
- back o' Bourke
- Outer Mongolia
- Timbuktu
- Tuktoyaktuk
- Fictional places
- Anytown
- BFE
Forms of backwater
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | backwaters |
| alternative form | back water |
| alternative form | back-water |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | backwaters |
| present participle | backwatering |
| past participle | backwatered |
| past | backwatered |
Origin of backwater
From back + water.
Words formed from backwater
Questions about backwater
- What does backwater mean?
- Backwater means the water held back by a dam or other obstruction.
- What is backwater in Tamil?
- Backwater in Tamil is உப்பங்கழி, காயல், பின்னீர். See Backwater meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use backwater in a sentence?
- Usually, however, this line, which once had a monopoly of all the traffic to Bournemouth, is a quiet backwater carrying a purely local traffic.
- What part of speech is backwater?
- Backwater can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- What is the plural of backwater?
- The plural of backwater is backwaters.
Words near backwater in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: backwater (page history and authors); Backwater (page history and authors); backwater (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); backwater (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); కరవాక (Telugu) (page history and authors); backwater (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-backwater.wav, en-au-backwater.ogg.
Cite this entry: “backwater.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/backwater. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.