Word Meanings - BACKSET - Book Publishers vocabulary database

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.

Related words: (words related to BACKSET)

• OVERFLOWINGLY
  In great abundance; exuberantly. Boyle.
• WATER-BEARER
  The constellation Aquarius.
• CHECKWORK
  Anything made so as to form alternate squares lke those of a checkerboard.
• CAUSEFUL
  Having a cause.
• WATERWORT
  Any plant of the natural order Elatineæ, consisting of two genera , mostly small annual herbs growing in the edges of ponds. Some have a peppery or acrid taste.
• WATER SHREW
  Any one of several species of shrews having fringed feet and capable of swimming actively. The two common European species are the best known. The most common American water shrew, or marsh shrew , is rarely seen, owing to its nocturnal habits.
• WATER-TIGHT
  So tight as to retain, or not to admit, water; not leaky.
• WATER RAT
  The water vole. See under Vole. The muskrat. The beaver rat. See under Beaver. 2. A thief on the water; a pirate.
• WATER CRAKE
  The dipper. The spotted crake . See Illust. of Crake. The swamp hen, or crake, of Australia.
• WATER DOG
  A dog accustomed to the water, or trained to retrieve waterfowl. Retrievers, waters spaniels, and Newfoundland dogs are so trained.
• CAUSATIVE
  1. Effective, as a cause or agent; causing. Causative in nature of a number of effects. Bacon. 2. Expressing a cause or reason; causal; as, the ablative is a causative case.
• WATER CLOCK
  An instrument or machine serving to measure time by the fall, or flow, of a certain quantity of water; a clepsydra.
• WATER SAIL
  A small sail sometimes set under a studding sail or under a driver boom, and reaching nearly to the water.
• WATERIE
  The pied wagtail; -- so called because it frequents ponds.
• WATER BALLAST
  Water confined in specially constructed compartments in a vessel's hold, to serve as ballast.
• WATER RAM
  An hydraulic ram.
• WATER LINE
  Any one of certain lines of a vessel, model, or plan, parallel with the surface of the water at various heights from the keel. Note: In a half-breadth plan, the water lines are outward curves showing the horizontal form of the ship at their several
• WATER LOCUST
  A thorny leguminous tree which grows in the swamps of the Mississippi valley.
• WATERING
  a. & n. from Water, v. Watering call , a sound of trumpet or bugle summoning cavalry soldiers to assemble for the purpose of watering their horses. -- Watering cart, a sprinkling cart. See Water. -- Watering place. A place where water may be
• WATER PARSNIP
  Any plant of the aquatic umbelliferous genus Sium, poisonous herbs with pinnate or dissected leaves and small white flowers.
• ANTICAUSODIC
  See ANTICAUSOTIC
• RECOURSEFUL
  Having recurring flow and ebb; moving alternately. Drayton.
• SHARPER
  A person who bargains closely, especially, one who cheats in bargains; a swinder; also, a cheating gamester. Sharpers, as pikes, prey upon their own kind. L'Estrange. Syn. -- Swindler; cheat; deceiver; trickster; rogue. See Swindler.
• BLACKWATER STATE
  Nebraska; -- a nickname alluding to the dark color of the water of its rivers, due to the presence of a black vegetable mold in the soil.