backplate

English

The breastplate (left) and backplate (right) of a Greek cuirass.

Etymology

back +‎ plate

Noun

backplate (plural backplates)

1. A plate protecting a fighting person's back.
   • 1998, Stuart W. Pyhrr et al., Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and His Contemporaries, Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 285:

     The cuirass of Roman muscled type is composed of an anatomically modeled breastplate and backplate, each made in one with a gorget […]

2. (underwater diving) A plate harnessed to a diver's back, to which the gas cylinders are attached.
3. A metal plate on the rear of a computer's casing, used to cover a port or slot.
4. A wood or metal (or glass, etc) plate that serves as a backing for an object.
5. (UK, automotive) A rigid metal plate inside the brake drum, which supports the wheel cylinder, brake shoes, and other parts of a drum brake.
6. Part of a condenser microphone that sits behind the diaphragm and which acts, in conjunction with the diaphragm, as a sort of variable capacitor.

Derived terms

• backplated