sweep-back

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noun Aeronautics.

the shape of, or the angle formed by, an airplane wing or other airfoil the leading or trailing edge of which slopes backward from the fuselage.

Origin:
1915–20; noun use of verb phrase sweep back

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To sweep-back

Collins

World English Dictionary

sweepback (ˈswiːpˌbæk)

—n
	the rearward inclination of a component or surface, such as an aircraft wing, fin, etc

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Relevant Questions

What Is Sweep·back?

00:10

Sweep-back is always a great word to know.

So is doohickey. Does it mean:

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

a fool or simpleton; ninny.

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Matching Quote

"People having speech defects sometimes learn part of the practice by laborious study, but good speech is always mainly unconscious speech. Any tennis player, even if he could not explain this enigma, could provide an analogy for it. When he sees a rapidly flying tennis ball coming toward him, he knows what he must do. He must maneuver himself into the proper position, be poised with his weight properly distributed, meet the ball with the proper sweep of his arm and with his racket held at just the right pitch, and all this must be timed to stop the flying ball at a precise point. But if the tennis player pauses to think of all these actions and how he will perform them, he is lost. The ball will not skim back over the net, building air pressure as it goes until it buzzes down into the opponent's corner. If the tennis player thinks about anything except where he wants the ball to go and what he plans for the next stroke, he will probably become so awkward that he will be lucky to hit the ball at all. Rapid, precise muscular actions can be successfully carried out only by the unconscious part of the brain. And so with the speaker. He cannot speak well unless he speaks unconsciously, for his movements are as precise, as complicated, and as exactly timed as those of the tennis player."

-Charlton Laird

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