back-lash Mech.
(ˈbæklæʃ)
Also backlash.
a. The jarring reaction or striking back of a wheel or set of connected wheels in a piece of mechanism, when the motion is not uniform or when sudden pressure is applied. ˈback-lashing (in same sense).
| 1815 Brit. Pat. 3887, There is a great risk of breaking these wheels from the backlash or returning stroke of the engine. 1825 J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 44 If a wheel is not true..it will shake, or have, what is called, back⁓lash. 1863 N. Brit. Rev. May 257 Throughout the machine, in such a case, there is too much back-lash. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 33 Steering Gear..whereby the steersman is relieved from the danger of back-lash on the wheel. 1883 Century Mag. 381 To prevent the reel from back-lashing. a 1935 T. E. Lawrence Mint (1955) iii. xiii. 194 Two extra thou of backlash in the planet pinions of an epi-gear. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1921 What Business Man should know about Printing (W. B. Conkey Co.) 23 The entire operation of the manufacture of a book..is in one continuous line without a back⁓lash. 1929 Jrnl. Commerce (N.Y.) 6 Apr. 18/8 The backlash from the diversion of finances to speculative purposes showed its first definitely injurious effects. 1939 N. Monsarrat This is Schoolroom vii. 166 Another world where her hair had lustre..and meat-pies no back-lash. 1957 Sat. Even. Post 29 June 58 You're going to get a backlash—segregation's going to spread. 1958 Spectator 1 Aug. 156/1 Why should we feel the backlash of the recession at this date? 1962 P. Brickhill Deadline x. 126 She learned the police had searched her room. I caught the backlash. 1964 Listener 30 July 149/2 [Addressed to a Negro] Could you provoke a kind of white backlash if you move in, getting your full demands laid before the public? Ibid. 10 Sept. 372/2 The notorious white backlash (the voters, especially of immigrant origins, who fear the Negroes will move into their jobs and depress the value of their little houses). 1964 Publishers' Weekly 21 Sept. 28 In the backlash of the Encyclopaedia Britannica–G. & C. Merriam merger, a secret meeting was held at the Williams Club in New York. |