switchbackadj.n.

1887 R. Fry Let. 21 Nov. (1972) I. 117 Some of us went on a switchback railway (the sensation of which I thought very pleasant).

1888 J. A. Lees & W. J. Clutterbuck B.C. 1887: Ramble in Brit. Columbia (1892) xxxiv. 373 We began the ascent of the range, which..is accomplished by what is called a ‘switchback’ railway. This contrivance is a series of zigzags, and has no similarity to the..sport lately introduced into England under the same name.

1896 Gentleman's Mag. 280 126 The effect on the infamous road we travelled was a combination of the switchback railway and ‘razzle-dazzle’.

1899 Daily News 8 May 5/5 The switchback road of Earlswood-common.

1908 F. W. Lanchester Aerodonetics 30 A magnificent flight, remarkable ‘switch-back’ flight path, distance, relative to the wind, probably over 600 yards.

1912 C. Mackenzie Carnival ix. 90 Jenny thought what horrible places they were, these sweeping moorland wastes..with switchback stone walls.

1961 Daily Tel. 5 Sept. 12/2 Where Mr Hill made much more sense was in criticising what he called the Government's ‘switchback economies’.

1965 Daily Mail 28 Oct. 5/3 A dangerous ‘switchback’ course can build up as the plane descends.

1978 S. Wilson Dealer's Move vii. 116 I got hung up behind a couple of lorries... It was switch-back country and there was no way you could see what was coming.

1863 Harper's Mag. Sept. 465/1 We descend from our high elevation by gravity, changing our direction at various points by means of what is called a Switch-back.

1873 ‘M. Twain’ & C. D. Warner Gilded Age xlix. 445 There will have to be a branch track built, and a ‘switch-back’ up the hill.

1887 A. A. Hayes Jesuit's Ring 162 A temporary expedient in the way of a switch-back.

1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 8 Sept. 4/1 The popularity of the switchback is due to the exhilaration and excitement of a jerky rush through the air at a speed over varying angles suggestive of danger.

1895 J. G. Millais Breath from Veldt v. 89 Fortunately..the switchback of human sensations brings us back again and again to the pinnacle of hope.

1897 E. B. Tweedie Through Finland in Carts vii. 139 The Finlanders put up a Kälkbacke or Skrinnbacke, in imitation of their Russian friends... They are really switchbacks made of ice and snow.

1933 National Geographic Mag. Feb. 196 (caption) An excellent highway climbs by turns and switchbacks through natural timber to the top of the towering dome.

1934 G. Greene It's a Battlefield iv. 203 Marriage was the switchback, the giant racer,..the guarantee that one would never be alone.

1965 Daily Mail 28 Oct. 5/3 If the Vanguard..was on the down-slope of a switchback when the talk-down was ended,..probably no further cause for the crash need be sought.

1969 Islander (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 9 Nov. 7/1 Steep grades are not the only challenge on this road. Several of the switchbacks are so tight that much manoeuvring is required to get around them.

1976 J. Snow Cricket Rebel 61 Each time I was to find the county side at a lower ebb, with the team on a down slide of the switchback we rode in the 1960s.

1903 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Apr. 499/2 The railway cork-screwed and switch-backed up a rise of a couple of thousand feet in seventeen miles.

1917 E. C. Middleton Way of Air ii. 21 To ‘switchback’ is to fly up and down, up and down, as the name implies.

1930 J. Collier His Monkey Wife vi. 72 Electric light cables..switchbacked along the undulating coast.

1976 B. Bova Multiple Man (1977) vi. 65 My rented car climbed the switch-backed driveway.

1913 Outing Jan. 498/1 Switch-backing or zigzagging up a hill is simply striking off to the right, for instance, at an angle and then turning off to the left.

1963 Times 16 Feb. 11/1 Another short drop leads to the edge of the lake with its bathing station and a surrealist structure built for high diving and switchbacking into the water.

1972 Daily Tel. 13 Oct. (Colour Suppl.) 86/2 A switchbacking lane over the heath to Studland.