Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A guide attached to the slide-rest of a lathe and placed in contact with the work to steady it in turning.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • But the constant bouncing, and the fact that your feet are essentially locked into stirrups, can get wearying as the hours pass and the rear hump is too far set in the recline position to serve as a back-rest.

    Dunes Struck 2011

  • The big "poufy" parts of the wings would actually make a great head and back-rest.

    Friday bits and pieces | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources 2008

  • I picked it up and dangled it by the chin strap as I pulled back the quilt and pushed up the pillows as a back-rest for reading before sleep.

    Slay Ride Francis, Dick, 1920- 1974

  • Almost without realising it I relaxed heavily against the back-rest of the chair, the strain of the keyed-up tension of the past forty-eight hours had been far greater than I had realised.

    Fear is the Key MacLean, Alistair 1961

  • I was leaning against an olive - trunk that had spent the past hundred years growing itself into the right shape for a perfect back-rest, and gazing out over the fields and trying to identify my peasant friends among the tiny coloured blobs that moved there.

    My Family and Other Animals Durrell, Gerald, 1925- 1956

  • The face of the foot of the tub and that of the back-rest, should have in their centres (from side to side) and commencing at about five inches from the bottom of the tub, a bed for the reception of the carbons.

    The Electric Bath George M. Schweig

  • Here the coping, as it has to cover not only the upper edge of the head of the tub, but that of the back-rest also, is of necessity much wider than at any other portion, and thus affords most room for the binding posts.

    The Electric Bath George M. Schweig

  • The bed which is to receive the carbon at the head of the tub must be deeper than ¼″ on account of the concavity of the back-rest.

    The Electric Bath George M. Schweig

  • "It didn't sound like him," ventured a policeman, close to where the driver sat behind his wooden back-rest.

    The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City Laura Lee Hope

  • This groove is continued vertically along the inside of the back-rest and foot of the tub respectively, to communicate at either end with the bed for the reception of the carbon plates.

    The Electric Bath George M. Schweig

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