Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A sudden or violent backward whipping motion.
- n. An antagonistic reaction to a trend, development, or event: "As the backlash against divorce progressed, state legislatures . . . called for a rollback of no-fault divorce laws and even for premarital waiting periods” ( Walter Kirn).
- n. A snarl formed in the part of a fishing line that is wound around the reel.
- n. The play resulting from loose connections between gears or other mechanical elements.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In mech., the jarring reaction of each of a pair of wheels upon the other, produced by irregularities of velocity when the load is not constant or the moving power is not uniform.
- n. In coal-mining, the backward suction of the air-current after an explosion of fire-damp.
Wiktionary
- n. A sudden backward motion.
- n. A reaction, objection or outcry, especially of a violent or abrupt nature.
- n. mechanics The distance through which one part of connected machinery, as a wheel, piston, or screw, can be moved without moving the connected parts, resulting from looseness in fitting or from wear.
- n. The jarring or reflex motion caused in badly fitting machinery by irregularities in velocity or a reverse of motion.
- v. : To cause or set off a backlash.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Mech.) The distance through which one part of connected machinery, as a wheel, piston, or screw, can be moved without moving the connected parts, resulting from looseness in fitting or from wear; also, the jarring or reflex motion caused in badly fitting machinery by irregularities in velocity or a reverse of motion.
- n. A strong and sudden reverse movement in a moving part of a machine.
- n. A strong popular reaction serving to counter the effect of an action; -- used especially of adverse reactions to social or political developments.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a movement back from an impact
- v. come back to the originator of an action with an undesired effect
- n. an adverse reaction to some political or social occurrence
Etymologies
- From back + lash. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Well, buckle your seat belts: the backlash is here.”
“Because fear of that kind of backlash is the only justification for this that I can think of.”
Matthew Yglesias » Obama SOTU Plan Includes Non-Refundable Child Tax Credit Expansion
“That "backlash" is unlikely to materialise, mainly because the core Eurosceptics in the parliamentary party are well aware that the Cameroonies – and Francis Maude in particular - would welcome a showdown, with hard-liners storming out of the party.”
“Flint, MI, I hunt every where in MI and love the Saginaw Bay/Port Austin Launch! hey backlash is the "Portside" still open on main street in Marquette?”
“And also to explain what I think the root of the backlash is to the Rule as stated among some groups.”
“The backlash is hurting Cessna where it counts, the company recently laid off 4,500 workers because of the sudden drop in demand.”
Private Jet Manufacturers Annoyed At Backlash, Claim Jets Are Practical - The Consumerist
“The birthers may have reached and passed their peak, though, thanks to the scrutiny, the derisive laughter, and the backlash from the overkill on the part of the wingnuts in the mainstream media like Lou Dobbs.”
“When the Republicans took back the House in 1994 it was partially in response to a backlash from the wealthy over Clinton's increase in taxes for the rich that created a Federal budget surplus and set the stage for the most prosperous period in human history.”
The Huffington Post: Robert Creamer: What Yesterday's Election Means for Progressives
“But maybe consider this – this backlash is created and maintained by the media outlets who publish quotes from people all the time without the right context, taking only the most incendiary part, and sometimes even making it up as they go along.”
“More Republican backlash is sure to follow, but Russia, which opposed to the missile defense system, is probably delighted by the news.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘backlash’.
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back phrases/hyphens/compounds
backache to backyard
back-ache, back-aching, back-acter, back-acting, back-answer, back-bar, back-basket, back beat, back-bias, back-blast, back-blowing, back-boiler and 342 more...
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POL - scandalous (single words only)
cadre, bribery, bashing, backhander, clash, crony, coercion, coterie, chicanery, baksheesh, acolyte, backlash and 256 more...
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POL - scandalous (words and collocati...
Words and collocations associated with political scandal
blow the whistle, boo, cronyism and rigging, democratic deficit, denigrate, dirty linen, fiasco, finger pointing a..., graft, hidden account, hush money, illicit financing... and 578 more...
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WF - nominal compounds (figurative)
An extensive list I have been working on for quite some time. Feel free to add more of the kind if you miss any.
brainstorming, upside, downside, goldplating, bikeshedding, mudslinging, downgrading, headhunter, streamlining, mainstreaming, gerrymandering, frontloading and 503 more...
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POL - cool compounds
scaremongering, facelifting, mudslinging, gerrymandering, goldplating, muscleflexing, headway, pinpointing, hobby-horse, barnstorming, grandfathering, finger-wagging and 31 more...
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fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Tuesday words
just the next words that come along
nasality, transignification, lapsarian, disciple, slanguage, atwitter, avast, ahoy, asleep, awake, hymnody, glissade and 573 more...
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Foxtrot's list
afternoon delight, almost unreal, full of spark, dazzle n daze, alarming stride, rushing tide, double dagger, in the nude, constant pressure, widow maker, bourbon on the rocks, air fare holme and 311 more...
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back-
of the back; behind; prior
backache, backfield, backdate, backlash, backslash, backward, background
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Front and Back
backchat, backbone, backpack, backhoe, backfire, backhanded, breakfront, beachfront, drawback, effrontery, frontier, switchback and 196 more...
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vivek's list
flibbertigibbet, droll, reticence, prelude, erinaceous, brinkmanship, depone, inaniloquent, limerance, pronk, onomatopoeia, oxymoron and 385 more...
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Lachesis's Words
senage, missary, mendicancy, chantry, obit, mendicity, eccentricity, skew, runout, jerk, backlash, azimuth and 16 more...
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New York Times
All the words I don't know in New York Times Sunday Newspaper
inexorable, discerning, revere, warp, garner, backlash, ample, cachet, nonagenarian, plaintive, inaugural, shrine and 58 more...
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Nouns
harbinger, onus, analect, poaching, floe, backlash, profligacy, munificence, wellsprings, dissimulation, race baiting, precursor and 34 more...
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EngagingEnglish
mug, deftly, gauge, billboard, extrovert, assertiveness, sociability, discern, intriguing, stymied, stymie, impart and 71 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for backlash.

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