back-action orig. U.S.
[back- A. 11.]
Backward or reverse action, as in a machine. Also attrib. and fig.
| 1845 Knickerbocker XXV. 406 There lurks beneath it [sc. the Yankee countenance] the knowledge of..some ‘self-acting back-action sausage-stuffer’. 1862 Lowell Biglow P. ii. iii. i. 99 The self-cockin', back-action style o' J. D. 1873 J. H. Beadle Undevel. West 800 That sort of detraction has an awkward back-action about it. a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. 205/2 Back-action Steam-engine. 1934 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 267 By ‘back action’ is meant the alleged fact that the conditions which follow an act affect the bond or connection responsible for the act. 1963 J. Osborne Dental Mechanics (ed. 5) x. 204 Back action clasps will be used on premolars. |
So back-actioned a.
| 1875 [see bar n.1 29 a]. |