backstroke

Pluralbackstrokes

Formsbackstrokes, backstroking, backstroked

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A swimming stroke performed while lying on one's back, rotating both arms through the water to propel the swimmer.

   He won the 200-meter backstroke at the regional championships.

   Coaches often teach the backstroke after swimmers master floating on their backs.

   Note

   Here back names the swimmer's posture, face up in the water, rather than the backward swing of the backhanded blow. In competition the word usually takes the article and a distance: the 100-meter backstroke. In racing it is the only stroke started in the water rather than from the block. Swimmers also use the word as a verb, saying they backstroke a length.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To swim using the stroke performed lying on one's back, with both arms rotating through the water.

   Swimmers who backstroke well keep their hips high in the water.

   She prefers to backstroke during her morning laps.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A stroke or blow delivered with a backhanded motion, swinging the hand or arm backward.

   She sent the ball back over the net with a sharp backstroke.

   A single backstroke from the swordsman sent the lantern crashing down.

   Similarbackhand

   Oppositeforehand

   Note

   Swordplay is where this blow lives most vividly. In Tobias Smollett's 1755 translation of Don Quixote, back-stroke, hyphenated, renders the Spanish revés: a single one cuts two monstrous giants through the middle. The compound is simply back plus stroke, and here back describes the direction of the swing, not the striker's posture. That is what separates it from the swimming stroke.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   In change ringing, the pull on the tail of the rope that swings the bell through a full circle.

   Each backstroke sends the bell swinging back to its balance point.

   He timed his backstroke carefully to follow the bell ahead of him.

   Oppositehandstroke

   Note

   Bell ringers think of each swing in pairs, and this is one half of the pair. Its partner is the handstroke, pulled on the sally, the covered grip on the rope. The backstroke is pulled on the tail end. The two alternate as the bell turns full circle one way and then back, so a ringer's timing depends on keeping them even.

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