Part 490

Back"less, a. Without a back.

Back"log` (-lg`; 115), n. [Back, a. + log.] A large stick of wood, forming the back of a fire on the hearth. [U.S.]

There was first a backlog, from fifteen to four and twenty inches in diameter and five feet long, imbedded in the ashes. S. G. Goodrich.

{ Back"piece` (&?;), Back"plate` (&?;), } n. [Back, n. or a. + piece, plate.] A piece, or plate, which forms the back of anything, or which covers the back; armor for the back.

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{ Back"rack (bk"rk), Back"rag (bk"rg), } n. See Bacharach.

Backs (bks), n. pl. Among leather dealers, the thickest and stoutest tanned hides.

Back"saw` (bk"s`), n. [2d back, n. + saw.] A saw (as a tenon saw) whose blade is stiffened by an added metallic back.

Back"set` (-st`), n. [Back, adv. + set.] 1. A check; a relapse; a discouragement; a setback.

2. Whatever is thrown back in its course, as water.

Slackwater, or the backset caused by the overflow. Harper's Mag.

Back"set`, v. t. To plow again, in the fall; -- said of prairie land broken up in the spring. [Western U.S.]

Back"set"tler (-st"lr), n. [Back, a. + settler.] One living in the back or outlying districts of a community.

The English backsettlers of Leinster and Munster. Macaulay.

{ ||Back"sheesh`, ||Back"shish` } (&?;), n. [Pers. bakhshsh, fr. bakhshdan to give.] In Egypt and the Turkish empire, a gratuity; a "tip".

Back"side` (-sd`), n. [Back, a. + side.] The hinder part, posteriors, or rump of a person or animal.

Backside (one word) was formerly used of the rear part or side of any thing or place, but in such senses is now two words.

Back"sight` (-st`), n. [Back, adv. + sight.] (Surv.) The reading of the leveling staff in its unchanged position when the leveling instrument has been taken to a new position; a sight directed backwards to a station previously occupied. Cf. Foresight, n., 3.

Back"slide" (-sld"; 277), v. i. [imp. Backslid (&?;); p. p. Backslidden (&?;), Backslid; p. pr. & vb. n. Backsliding.] [Back, adv. + slide.] To slide back; to fall away; esp. to abandon gradually the faith and practice of a religion that has been professed.

Back"slid"er (&?;), n. One who backslides.

Back"slid"ing, a. Slipping back; falling back into sin or error; sinning.

Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord. Jer. iii. 14.

Back"slid"ing, n. The act of one who backslides; abandonment of faith or duty.

Our backslidings are many. Jer. xiv. 7.

Back"staff` (&?;), n. An instrument formerly used for taking the altitude of the heavenly bodies, but now superseded by the quadrant and sextant; -- so called because the observer turned his back to the body observed.

Back" stairs` (-stârz`) n.. Stairs in the back part of a house, as distinguished from the front stairs; hence, a private or indirect way.

{ Back"stairs`, Back"stair` }, a. Private; indirect; secret; intriguing; -- as if finding access by the back stairs.

A backstairs influence. Burke.