backed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of back.

   Most council members backed the proposal to expand the park.

   He carefully backed the car out of the garage.

   Note

   One spelling serves as both past tense and participle: the council backed the plan; the plan was backed by most members. The verb behind it does a lot. It reverses a car, supports a proposal, and in weather talk it describes a wind shifting anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere. Compounds like high-backed are a separate formation, built from the noun back plus -ed.

2. 2
   adjectivein compounds

   Having a back of a specified type, named by a word attached in front.

   The antique shop displayed a row of curved-backed wooden benches.

   She preferred a high-backed armchair for reading late at night.

   Note

   A combining form that names the shape, angle or color of a back: a high-backed chair, sway-backed, the red-backed shrike. It always sits second in a hyphenated compound and never stands alone, so the first element does the describing. The pattern reaches from furniture to posture to bird names, where the color of the back becomes part of what the species is called.

3. 3
   adjectivein compounds

   Having backing of a specified type, named by a word attached in front.

   Investors trusted the gold-backed notes during the financial panic.

   The carpet tiles were rubber-backed to keep them from sliding.

   Note

   This follows the same compound pattern as the "type of back" adjective, but the first element names what stands behind a thing rather than its shape. The backing can be literal, a layer underneath, as in rubber-backed tiles. It can also be financial, a guarantee, as in asset-backed securities and gold-backed notes. In money talk, the compound names the security behind a promise.

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