back tread

Retrogre ion. ( Scotch. followed the back tread of our defection." Manifesto of the Scots Army (1640). back-trick, s. A mode of attacking behind. IMG:content-0979.png:[blocks in formation] (2) To cause to move backwards. (Used of horses, railway engines and the trains attached to them, the engines in steam-boats, or anything similar.) (See II. 2, where some special phrases are given.] "One of the alien mercenaries had backed his horse against an honest citizen who pre ed forward to catch a glimpse of the royal canopy."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng . , ch. xi. (3) To write on the back of; to direct a letter; to endorse a bill or other document. [II. 1.] 2. Figuratively: To stand at the back of, to aid, support. (1) Of persons: To stand as a second or supporter to one; to support or maintain one's IMG:content-0980.png:[blocks in formation] 404 To back a ve el: To make her go backwards. To back the oars of a boat : To reverse the action of the oars and make the boat move stern foremost, the phrase for which is, to back astern. To back an anchor: To lay down a small anchor in advance of a large one, the cable of the former being fastened to the crown of the latter one to prevent its coming home. 3. Horse-racing: (a) To back a horse: To bet that one of the horses in a race shall outrun the rest. (b) To back the field : To support the aggregate of the horses in a race against a particular horse. B. Intransitive: To move backwards. To back out of a promise, a project, or an enterprise: To retreat from the forward position one formerly occupied with respect to it. bắck (2), bắc, s . [In Sw. back =... a bowl; Dut . baka bowl, a pan, a basin, the boot of a coach, the pit in a theatre, a trough, a crib, a me ; Fr. bac = a large ferry-boat for men and animals; Arm. bak , bag = a bark.] A. Ord. Lang. A wooden trough for carrying fuel; a "backet." [BUCKET.] ( Scotch.) "After narrowly escaping breaking my shins over a turf back and a salting tub..."-Scott: Rob Roy, ch. xiii. B. Technically : I. Navigation: A ferry-boat or praam, specially one of large size, moved by a rope or chain, for transporting animals, as well as men, from one side of a river to the other. ( Webster .) II. Brewing & Distilling: 1. A cooler, a large flat ve el or tub in which the wort is cooled. ( Webster .) "That the backs were about 120 inches deep."- State , Leslie of Powis , . (1805), 1. 166. 2. A ve el into which the liquor designed to be fermented is pumped from the cooler in order to be worked with the yeast. ( Webster .)