backslash

Pluralbackslashes

Formsbackslashes, backslashing, backslashed

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The punctuation mark \, a diagonal stroke running from the upper left to the lower right, the mirror image of the forward slash.

   She added a backslash to separate the two directory names.

   Programmers reach for a backslash whenever they need to escape a special character.

   Note

   The name is a picture of the stroke: a slash that leans back against the direction of writing when lines run left to right. The ordinary slash, also called the solidus or oblique, leans forward and is the more common mark, so it needs no prefix. Because the two differ only in their lean, they are easily confused in speech, which leads to the mistaken use for /.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To escape a metacharacter by placing a backslash before it, turning the pair into an escape sequence the parser reads literally.

   You need to backslash the dollar sign so the shell doesn't expand it.

   The editor automatically backslashes any literal period in the search pattern.

   Similarescape

   Note

   Programmers' shorthand for one particular way of escaping: the verb names the tool, while escape names the effect. Its object is the character being protected, not the backslash, so you backslash the dollar sign or the quote mark. The verb is regular (backslashes, backslashing, backslashed), and the past participle also works before a noun, as in a backslashed quote.

3. 3
   nounnonstandardcountable

   A label mistakenly applied to the ordinary forward slash /, especially when someone refers to that mark or reads it aloud.

   The presenter recited the link as 'https colon backslash backslash,' though every mark on the slide was a forward slash.

   Also, avoid submenus^([sic]) that can confuse the audience—if you're giving lengthy Web site addresses full of backslashes, shorten it so only the Web site's home page is given.

   2010, Frank Barnas, Ted White

   Note

   A slip to avoid in careful writing and speech. Web addresses use the forward slash, yet people reading them aloud sometimes call each stroke a backslash. A character in Lee Vance's The Garden of Betrayal (2010) dictates "F-T-P colon backslash backslash." To tell them apart, check the lean described under the mark itself. A URL's strokes lean forward, so say "slash" or "forward slash."

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