English

Noun

backdrop ‎(plural backdrops)

1. A decorated cloth hung at the back of a stage.
2. The setting or background of a historical event.

   The president spoke outside the brick exterior of the firehouse for Ladder Company 10 and Engine Company 10, against the backdrop of a 56-foot-long bronze bas-relief depicting the towers in flames. — New York Times

   • 2012 May 9, John Percy, “Birmingham City 2 Blackpool 2 (2-3 on agg): match report”, in the Telegraph:

     Blackpool’s aggregate victory ensures Birmingham are now preparing for a potential summer of change. Manager Chris Hughton has been operating against a backdrop of financial uncertainty all season and last night Peter Pannu, the vice-chairman, announced that the club’s accounts would finally be published next week, and that a new investor had been identified.

   • 2016 February 6, James Zogby, “Israel’s prickliness blocks the long quest for peace”, in The National:

     All of this heightened hyper-reaction to criticism plays out against a backdrop of dangerous moves by Israel and its supporters in the US to not only defame and politically punish critics and in some instances to go further by making criticism illegal.

3. An image that serves as a visual background.
   • 2008, Guy W. Lecky-Thompson, Video Game Design Revealed (page 12)

     Animated, seemingly varied crowd movement will place a game in the early 1990s, while static crowd backdrops and blocky, sprite-based athletes tend to point toward technology used in the 1980s.

Translations

Verb

backdrop ‎(third-person singular simple present backdrops, present participle backdropping, simple past and past participle backdropped)

1. (transitive) To serve as a backdrop for.

   a brilliant sunset backdropping the famous skyline

Anagrams

• drop back, drop-back, dropback