backsie

English

Etymology

From back +‎ -sie.

Noun

backsie (plural backsies)

1. (childish) The back.
   • 1985, Dorothy Einon, Play with a purpose:

     A mimsy, a clapsy, I roll my hands, touch backsie, My right hand, my left hand, High as the sky, low as the sea, I touch my knee, and my heel, and my toe, And over we go.

2. (childish, often in the plural) The act of taking back or going back on a statement, promise, or agreement.

   Synonym: takesies-backsies

   • 1986, Alice Bach, The Meat in the Sandwich, page 136:

     No backsie no matter what.

   • 1987, Carolyn W. Field, Jaqueline Shachter Weiss, Values in selected children's books of fiction and fantasy:

     Frances is the loser when she agrees to no "backsies" or refunds as she buys Thelma's plastic tea dishes with money saved for a china set.

   • 1999, Mary Bolte, A Guide for Using Bedtime for Frances in the Classroom, page 48:

     Talk about times when you had a backsie or gave something back to someone.

   • 2008 March 25, Harvey Araton, “For President, Knicks Could Look Nearby”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     Not one to gloat, Thorn did sound amused Monday when asked if he had broken the news to the Mavericks' owner, Mark Cuban: no backsies.

   • 2011, Jenna Katerin Moran, Nobilis: The Essentials, Volume 1, page 11:

     Then you will be in trouble because it will kill you to have it taken out again but it will betray your deepest inner truth to tell them No Backsies.

   • 2012, Kate Hoffmann, The Mighty Quinns: Ronan: The Mighty Quinns: Marcus, page 83:

     Whenever one of us would say something nasty, she'd ask if we wanted a backsie, which meant we could take it back before anyone heard it.

   • 2013 May 6, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Monday, May 6, 2013:

     "Hm. I guess I did agree to go along with whatever her conditions were..." "We smooched on it. No backsies."

   • 2015, Susan Morris Shaffer, Linda Perlman Gordon, How to Connect with Your iTeen: A Parenting Road Map, page 226:

     Remind them that there are no "backsies" online—what is posted can't be taken back.

3. (childish, often in the plural) A reciprocal action or consequence, such as immediately tagging the player who has tagged one in a game of tag.
4. (jacks, often in the plural) The act of going through a sequence of moves in reverse.
   • 1956, Patricia Evans, Jacks, page 9:

     And then you play Backsies again if you're playing that way.

   • 1961, Patricia Evans, Rimbles: A Book of Children's Classic Games, Rhymes, Songs, and Sayings:

     In the eastern part of this country BACKSIES is played by some people after each game, and you're not through with a game until you've played it.

   • 1970, Marta Weigle, Follow my fancy: the book of jacks and jack games, page 12:

     When a player gets through sixies, he then starts on a backsie of the regular game.

5. (childish, often in the plural) The act of joining a queue behind a friend rather than at the end of the queue.

   Coordinate term: frontsie

   • 1988, William L. Rivers, Cleve Mathews, Ethics for the media, page 45:

     To her, the ethical thicket consists of "frontsies and backsies," a phenomenon she noticed in kindergarten.

   • 2003, Ann M. Martin, The Baby-sitter's Club, page 200:

     One of his favorites is "No frontsies, no backsies," so there was really no point in trying to butt in.

   • 2019, Robert K. Bolger, Robert C. Coburn, Religious Language, Meaning, and Use: The God Who is Not There:

     Backsies meant you let a kid cut behind you. A complex moral microcosm presented itself in the world of frontsies and backsies, with a wide range of available moral responses.

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “backsy n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Anagrams

• backies, biscake