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back-stop
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back·stop
/
ˈbækˌstɒp
/
Show Spelled
[
bak
-stop
]
Show IPA
noun,
verb,
back·stopped,
back·stop·ping.
noun
1.
a wall, wire screen, or the like, serving to prevent a ball from going too far beyond the normal playing area.
2.
Baseball.
the catcher.
3.
a person or thing that serves as a support, safeguard, or reinforcement:
There were technicians on board as backstops to the automated controls.
verb (used without object)
4.
to act as a backstop.
verb (used with object)
5.
to act as a backstop to:
The government agreed to backstop companies that invested in oil exploration.
Origin:
1810–20;
back
1
+
stop
Related forms
back·stop·per,
noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
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back-stop
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Collins
World English Dictionary
backstop
(ˈbækˌstɒp)
—
n
1.
sport
a screen or fence to prevent balls leaving the playing area
2.
a block or catch to prevent excessive backward movement, such as one on the sliding seat of a rowing boat
—
vb
,
-stops
,
-stopping
,
-stopped
3.
(
US
) to provide with backing or support
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
backstop
1819, in cricket, from
back
+
stop
. In U.S. baseball, from 1889; fig. extension to "catcher on a baseball team" is from 1890. The verb is attested from 1956 in the sense of "support."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Matching Quote
"We live technologically, with man as the master of nature, man as the engineer, and let anyone who raises his voice against it stop using bridges not built by nature.... No electric light bulbs, no engines, no atomic energy, no calculating machines, no anaesthetics—back to the jungle."
-Max Frisch
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