backwash

noun

back·​wash ˈbak-ˌwȯsh How to pronounce backwash (audio)
-ˌwäsh
1
: a backward flow or movement (as of water or air) produced especially by a propelling force
also : the fluid that is moving backward
2

Examples of backwash in a Sentence

a general recession was the backwash of the crisis in the housing market
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Long story short, more bleach was applied and my hair started to melt away in straggly clumps at the backwash. Humeara Mohamed, refinery29.com, 7 June 2024 Below them, harbor seals appeared in the backwash of coves. Elaine Glusac, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Apr. 2024 The earliest object is an exquisite 1951 painting by the late Lee Mullican, once a UCLA professor, its knife-edge rays of shimmery golden light emerging from a central core to summon the birth of new worlds in the era’s backwash of hydrogen bombs and Holocaust. Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2023 The Brideshead backwash lingered. The Economist, 11 June 2020 See all Example Sentences for backwash 

Word History

First Known Use

1837, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of backwash was in 1837

Dictionary Entries Near backwash

Cite this Entry

“Backwash.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/backwash. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.

Kids Definition

backwash

noun
back·​wash ˈbak-ˌwȯsh How to pronounce backwash (audio)
-ˌwäsh
: backward movement (as of water or air) produced by a propelling force (as the motion of oars)

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