back lash

[bak-lash]

back·lash

[bak-lash]
noun
1.
a sudden, forceful backward movement; recoil.
2.
a strong or violent reaction, as to some social or political change: a backlash of angry feeling among Southern conservatives within the party.
3.
Machinery.
a.
the space between the thickness of a gear tooth and the width of the space between teeth in the mating gear, designed to allow for a film of lubricant, binding from heat expansion and eccentricity, or manufacturing inaccuracies.
b.
play or lost motion between loosely fitting machine parts.
4.
Angling. a snarled line on a reel, usually caused by a faulty cast.
verb (used without object)
5.
to make or undergo a backlash.

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Back lash is always a great word to know.
So is slumgullion. Does it mean:
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

Origin:
1805–15; back2 + lash1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To back lash
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