back worm (bakwerm)

A small worm generally found in the thin skin about the reins of IMG:content-1532.png:[blocks in formation] one sharp edge, used for cutting rather than thrusting, sometimes curved, and frequently straight. It usually had a basket-hilt, and was the common weapon of citizens and country people when the rapier and afterward the small-sword were worn by gentlemen. 2. A cudgel fitted with a basket-hilt, used for a particular kind of single-stick play.-3. A cudgel-play in which the back-sword (in sense 2) is used, peculiar to certain counties of England, and still kept up at festivals and the like in the attempt to preserve old customs. The Fard is with the left arm, and the object of each player is to break of his forehead draw blood. is to speak well of his friend; his backward voice is to utter foul speeches, and to detract. Shak., Tempest, ii. 2. 5. Slow; sluggish; unprogre ive; unadvanced; behind in progre : as, a backward learner. Brigandage survives only in out-of-the-way corners of the most backward countries of Christen dom, such as Spain and Sicily. J. Fiske, Evolutionist, p. 229. 6. Late; behind in time; coming after something else, or after the usual time: as, backward fruits; the season is backward. A dry, cold, backward spring, easterly winds. Evelyn , Diary, April 15, 1688. 7. Holding back; averse; reluctant; hesitating. The mind is backward to undergo the fatigue of weighing every argument. For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves. Watts. Pope , Windsor Forest, 1.50. 8. Timid; bashful; retiring in disposition; modest.-9. Reaching back into the past; back-tack (bak'tak), n. In Scots law , a tack already past. or lease connected with wadsets or mortgages, Flies unconscious o'er each backward year. by which the po e ion of the land is returned Byron, Childe Harold, ii. 24. to the proprietor on payment of a rent correbackwardt (bak'wärd), n. [ backward , a .] sponding to the interest of the money advanced. The things or state behind or past. See wadset .