Word.ws English Dictionary

frontlash

frontlash noun: a swell of support for a proposal that counters any backlash.

Noun

frontlash (plural frontlashes)

  1. A swell of support for a proposal that counters any backlash.
    • In his keynote, John Paul Hudson condemned the "glossy commercialism" of David Goodstein and the Advocate, which he said was part of a gay media "backlash" -- while the anti-gay "frontlash" against gays continues.1977 April 9, John Kyper, “Controversies Spark Maine Gay Symposium”, in Gay Community News, page 3
    • When a president uses expansive powers and his policy works, he may benefit from a frontlash effect: the successful assertion of power will not only yield political dividends, it will also strengthen the office of the presidency itself.1996, Richard M. Pious, The Presidency, page 89

Forms of frontlash

pluralfrontlashes

Origin of frontlash

Blend of front + backlash, coined by US president Lyndon B. Johnson with regard to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The word is still mainly used in reference to that Act.

Questions about frontlash

What does frontlash mean?
Frontlash means a swell of support for a proposal that counters any backlash.
What part of speech is frontlash?
Frontlash is a noun.
What is the plural of frontlash?
The plural of frontlash is frontlashes.

Words near frontlash in the dictionary

  1. frontispices
  2. frontispiece
  3. frontispieced
  4. frontispieces
  5. frontispiecing
  6. frontlash
  7. frontlashes
  8. frontless
  9. frontlessly
  10. frontlet
  11. frontlets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: frontlash (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.

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Cite this entry: “frontlash.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/frontlash. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.