backside

The back side of anything, the part opposite its front, particularly:

Adjective

  1. Approaching an obstacle backward.

Origin

From back + side.

Forms

back-side back side

Antonyms

frontside

Noun

  1. The back side of anything, the part opposite its front, particularly:
    • I gazed uncomprehendedly at the unfinished backside of the wall of the next room and wondered what had happened to my face. - 1987 June 17, Vic Bubbett, “Rambling Reflections: When a ‘red telephone call’ comes in, it...

    1. The back side of an estate: the backyard and outbuildings behind a main house, especially (UK dialect, euphemistic) an outhouse.

      • The building's backside faced an alley and was covered in grime and graffiti.

    2. (euphemistic) A person's buttocks.

      • Having ridden the horse all day for the first time, I had painful blisters on my backside.
      • With an arrowe so broad, He shott him into the backe-syde. - c. 1500, Robin Hood, Bk. ii, Ch. iv, p. 236:
      • Our toilet was an outside netty shared between two or three families, where you sat on a hole and hoped the cat wouldn't jump at your backside. - 1992 May 4, The Independent, page 13:

    3. (obsolete) The back side of a page: a verso.

  2. The reverse or opposite of anything.
    • ...to endorse him on the backside of posterity, not a golden, but a brazen Asse... - 1645, John Milton, Colasterion, page 26:
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see back, side.

Forms

backsides back-side back side

Synonyms

backhouse rear verso

Derived

backside throw get off one's backside have a sixpenny bit up one's backside have a sixpenny bit up one’s backside kick up the backside my backside pain in the backside sit on one's backside think the sun shines out of someone's backside