different between backstop vs background

English

Alternative forms

• back-stop

Etymology

back +? stop

Pronunciation

Noun

backstop (plural backstops)

1. A thing or a person put in the rear or in the back of something to reinforce, hold, support.
2. A default arrangement that holds if all else fails.
   • The Express, 7 June 2018

     Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar, this morning, said a time-limited backstop would be unacceptable, and has previously promised to vote down the UK’s Brexit withdrawal deal unless it features a satisfactory backstop.

   • The Irish Times, 17 November 2018

     "The 2½ years since have been about hammering home these points in any European capital that would listen. And in spite of capacity-sapping talks on the first point – Brexit, border and backstop – the Department of Foreign Affairs and other government departments have been working quietly to make good on the second.

3. (baseball) A wall or fence behind home plate.
4. (baseball slang) A catcher; the position of catcher.
5. (rounders) The player who stands immediately behind the striking base.
6. (cricket, dated) The longstop.
7. (cricket, dated) The wicket-keeper.
8. (espionage) Something serving to bolster or support a cover story etc.
   • 1976, Joseph Burkholder Smith, Portrait of a Cold Warrior (page 116)

     […] to be set up in Indonesia with a phony book and school supplies company established in New York City as a backstop.

   • 1990, Bruce W. Watson, Susan M. Watson, Gerald W. Hopple, United States intelligence: an encyclopedia (page 1974)

     Closely representing an alibi, creating a backstop could involve such measures as having people available to verify the details of an agent's cover story.

Coordinate terms

• (thing or a person to support): rearguard

Translations

Verb

backstop (third-person singular simple present backstops, present participle backstopping, simple past and past participle backstopped)

1. (transitive) To serve as backstop for.
2. (transitive) To bolster, support.

Translations

Anagrams

• back post, backpost, postback

English

Etymology

back +? ground

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bæk.??a?nd/

Adjective

background (not comparable)

1. Less important or less noticeable in a scene or system.

Antonyms

• conspicuous, foreground, forestanding, primary, prominent

Noun

background (countable and uncountable, plural backgrounds)

1. One's social heritage, or previous life; what one did in the past.

2. A part of the picture that depicts scenery to the rear or behind the main subject; context.
3. Information relevant to the current situation about past events; history.
4. A less important feature of scenery (as opposed to foreground).

5. (computing) The image or color over which a computer's desktop items are shown (e.g. icons or application windows).
6. (computing) A type of activity on a computer that is not normally visible to the user.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

background (third-person singular simple present backgrounds, present participle backgrounding, simple past and past participle backgrounded)

1. To put in a position that is not prominent.
   • 2006, Paul Baker, Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis, page 163:

     One aspect of the story that appears interesting is that the alleged rapist and victim are only referred to by name together in the same sentence once. In all the other sentences, one receives more focus, while the other is backgrounded.

2. (journalism) To gather and provide background information (on).

Spanish

Noun

background m (plural backgrounds)

1. background