different between terms vs unbacked

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /t??mz/
• (US) IPA^(key): /t?mz/

Noun

terms

1. plural of term

Verb

terms

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of term

Anagrams

• ERTMS

Swedish

Noun

terms

1. indefinite genitive singular of term

English

Etymology

un- +? backed

Adjective

unbacked (comparative more unbacked, superlative most unbacked)

1. (not comparable) Having no back.

2. Not supported or backed up (by someone or something).

   Synonym: unsupported

   • 1609, Thomas Heywood, Troia Britanica: or, Great Britaines Troy, London: W. Iaggard, Canto 14, stanza 103, p. 381,^[2]

     The warlike Wench amongst the Greekes doth stand

     Vnbackt by Troy, left of her Damsels all,

     The battery of a thousand swords she bides,

     Till her yron plates are hew’d off from her sides.

   • 1954, William Golding, Lord of the Flies, New York: Perigee, Chapter 2, p. 35,^[3]

     The simple statement, unbacked by any proof but the weight of Ralph’s new authority, brought light and happiness.

   • 1962, Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook, New York: Bantam, 1979, “Free Women: 2,” p. 306,^[4]

     This was an intellectual decision, unbacked by moral energy.

3. Having no (or few) backers.

4. (obsolete, not comparable) Of an animal: never having been ridden or not accustomed to being ridden; not (currently) being ridden.

   Synonym: unbroken

   • c. 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act IV, Scene 1,^[5]

     […] like unback’d colts, they prick’d their ears,

     Advanced their eyelids, lifted up their noses

     As they smelt music:

   • 1646, John Suckling, Fragmenta Aurea, London: Humphrey Moseley, p. 71,^[6]

     […] a well wayed horse will safely convay thee to thy journeys end, when an unbackt Filly may by chance give thee a fall:

   • 1753, William Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty, London: for the author, Chapter 17, p. 140,^[7]

     […] whoever has seen a fine arabian war-horse, unback’d and at liberty, and in a wanton trot, cannot but remember what a large waving line his rising, and at the same time pressing forward, cuts through the air;

   • 1823, Mary Shelley, Valperga, London: G. and W.B. Whittaker, Volume 2, Chapter 10, p. 237,^[8]

     […] having visited his charger which was to be led unbacked to the field, he mounted a black palfrey;

   • 1890, Rudyard Kipling, “The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney” in Mine Own People, New York: Manhattan Press, p. 176,^[9]

     Shakbolt must have had apoplexy at the thought of his ramping war-horses answering to that description. He used to buy unbacked devils, and tame them by starvation.

5. (photography, holography) (of a plate) Not having an antihalation backing.

See also

• unback
• unbackable

References

Anagrams

• backdune