backset

English

Etymology

back +‎ set

Noun

backset (plural backsets)

1. A check; a relapse; a discouragement; a setback.
2. Whatever is thrown back in its course, such as water.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Harper's Magazine:

     Slackwater, or the backset caused by the overflow.

Verb

backset (third-person singular simple present backsets, present participle backsetting, simple past and past participle backset)

1. (US, especially Western US) To plow again in the fall; said of prairie land broken up in the spring.

Further reading

• “backset”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• backest, backets, set back, setback