backlash

A suddenly reversed or backward motion, such as of a rope or elastic band when it snaps under tension.

Noun

A suddenly reversed or backward motion, such as of a rope or elastic band when it snaps under tension.
A negative reaction, objection or outcry, especially of a violent or abrupt nature.
- The public backlash to the proposal was quick and insistent.
The looseness through which one part of connected machinery, such as a wheel, gear, piston, or screw, can be moved without moving the connected parts, or a measurement of the distance moved thereby; either intentional (as allowance) or unintentional (from error or wear).
- ... the word "backlash" is used in the extended sense in which it is understood in Lancashire and Yorkshire , including not only backlash proper , but also break of contact between the working faces of the teeth of the...
The jarring or reflex motion caused in badly fitting machinery by irregularities in velocity or a reverse of motion.
- In ...breakages from high speed and irregular pitch, ten out of the eleven wheels had spur segments moulded from patterns, instead of by machinery; and in three of the ten the teeth were cast upon the felks, and were...
Synonyms: lash play

From back- + lash.

To perform a backlash, to lash back in reaction to some cause.
- 1894 William Westall. Tinkler. Ludgate Illustrated Magazine. Vol VIII Thrutch factory was a queer old concern. It had been built piecemeal-here a bit and there a bit. There were a new end and an old end, the...
- Just as it began to get dusk and the shadows from the trees deepening the twilight that had already spread over the lake, giving a peculiarly lonesome effect that water always has upon the approach of night, Uncle...
- 1909 La Compagnie Générale Transatlantique v. Hayes. (Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. March 16, 1909.) No. 205. There was testimony that but for the orders of these men, or one of them, the case would have...