| 释义 |
▪ I. backwater, n.|ˈbæˌkwɔːtə(r)|
[f. back a. or adv.]
†1. Water flowing in from behind. Obs.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls Ser.) I. 57 Strengþe of ryueres and bakwateres [impetus fluminum a tergo labentium] dryueþ forþ þe see Euxinum alway in oon cours. 1577Harrison Descr. Brit. xii, Sundrie small creekes void of backwater.
2. Water dammed back in the channel of a swollen or obstructed river (or mill-race), or that has overflowed into shallow lagoons near it.
1629H. Burton Babel no Bethel Ep. Ded., A continuall current, that so merrily driues the Popish mills about, and sets ours in a back water or float. 1799J. Robertson Agric. Perth 366 To free their land from the back-water, when Loch-Lubnaig is overcharged in the rainy season. 1816U. Brown Jrnl. in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1916) XI. 49 [I] was obliged to pay..for ferry over on the back water forced into said gully by the River. 1857F. L. Olmsted Journey through Texas 213 At the last freshet, the whole roof of the mill..was covered by the back water of the river. 1878J. H. Beadle Western Wilds xxv. 399 But the Columbia often rises so as to cause back-water, giving the Willamette a variation of thirty-two feet.
3. An artificial accumulation of water dammed back for any purpose.
1792A. Young Trav. France 77 An artificial back-water, capable..of sweeping out the harbour's mouth clean from all obstructions. 1861Smiles Engineers II. 68 By means of sluices, supplied by an artificial backwater.
4. A piece of water without current, lying more or less parallel to a river, and fed from it at the lower end by a back-flow.
1820Ann. Reg. 1819 517 The flux and reflux of Teutonic invasion..deposited this back-water of barbarism. 1863Kingsley Water Bab. iii. 107 The great withy pollard which hangs over the backwater. 1872H. W. Taunt Map Thames 21/2 In some of the backwaters are fine Pike. Mod. The back-waters of the Amazon are of enormous extent.
fig.1879Farrar St. Paul II. 20 Paul found there on his arrival a strange backwater of religious opinion. 1907Westm. Gaz. 11 Dec. 2/2 Eastern Bengal has always been somewhat of a backwater—remote, neglected, and in danger of stagnation. 1911F. Swinnerton Casement v. 171 He had lived in a backwater all his life, and his ideas..were often out of touch with reality.
5. A creek or arm of the sea, parallel to the coast, separated by a narrow strip of land from the open sea, with which it communicates by barred outlets.
1867in Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.
6. A backward current of water.
1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 271 The current..is a back⁓water, wherein the tide..runs nine hours towards the north, and only three towards the south. 1840Carlyle Heroes i. (1858) 198 A kind of backwater, or eddying swirl.
7. The swell of the sea thrown back from contact with a solid body, esp. from the paddles of steamboats; hence, the loss of power occasioned by it in steamboats. Also attrib.
1838Poe A. G. Pym Wks. 1864 IV. 83 Those which came from the larboard, being what are called back-water seas. c1865J. Wylde in Circ. Sc. I. 370/2 The back-water cast from the paddles or screw.
▪ II. ˈbackwater, back-water, v.
1. intr. = the phr. to back water: see back v. 15 b.
1828Examiner 56/1 They won't backwater when he endeavours to give way. 1959P. Capon Amongst those Missing 149 The boat swung right round..and then Harry had to back-water frantically to keep her bow-on.
2. trans. (See quot.)
1924Glasgow Herald 30 Dec. 7/7 The Tay at Meikleour was within a few feet of the top of the banks, and huge stretches of land were submerged in consequence of the ditches being backwatered.
3. fig. To bring into a backwater.
1885E. F. Byrrne Entangled I. i. viii. 139 He had the keenest sense, even when carried forward by the tide of a glorified passion, that Nature may treacherously and improvidently back-water. 1920Galsworthy In Chancery i. viii. 73 What on earth did such a woman do with her life, backwatered like this? |