different between backside vs backslide

English

Etymology

From back +? side

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bæk?sa?d/

Noun

backside (plural backsides)

1. The back side of anything, the part opposite its front, particularly:
   1. The back side of an estate: the backyard and outbuildings behind a main house, especially (Britain dialect, euphemistic) an outhouse.

   2. (euphemistic) A person's buttocks.
      • c. 1500, Robin Hood, Bk. ii, Ch. iv, p. 236:

        With an arrowe so broad, He shott him into the backe-syde.

      • 1992 May 4, The Independent, p. 13:

        Our toilet was an outside netty shared between two or three families, where you sat on a hole and hoped the cat wouldn't jump at your backside.

   3. (obsolete) The back side of a page: a verso.
2. (figuratively) The reverse or opposite of anything.

Synonyms

• (outhouse): backhouse (US, Canada); see also Thesaurus:bathroom
• (buttocks): rear; see also Thesaurus:buttocks
• (verso): See verso

Derived terms

• get off one's backside
• my backside
• sit on one's backside

Translations

References

• "backside, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Anagrams

• diebacks

English

Etymology

back +? slide

Verb

backslide (third-person singular simple present backslides, present participle backsliding, simple past backslid or backslided, past participle backslidden or backslid or backslided)

1. To regress; to slip backwards or revert to a previous, worse state.
   • 1893, George Eliot, George Eliot's Works - Volume 7 - Page 233

     Monna Brigida, who had backslided into false hair in Romola's absence, but now drew it off again and declared she would not mind being gray, if her dear child would stay with her.

   He felt better for a little while, before his condition started to backslide.

2. To shirk responsibility; to renege on one's obligations or commitments.

   Rich countries are backsliding on their commitment to agree to new WTO measures to help people in poor countries gain access to affordable medicines. — Oxfam press release, 24 June 2002

Derived terms

• backslider
• backsliding (adjective, noun)

Translations

Noun

backslide (plural backslides)

1. A backward regression; a reverting back to a worse state.
2. A dance move in which the feet are alternately slid back and the heels lifted, giving the illusion of walking forwards while actually moving backwards; later popularly called the moonwalk.