English

Noun

backside ‎(plural backsides)

1. The back side of anything, the part opposite its front, particularly:

   The building's backside faced an alley and was covered in grime and graffiti.

   1. The back side of an estate: the backyard and outbuildings behind a main house, especially (Britain dialect, euphemistic) an outhouse.
   2. (euphemistic) The back side of a person: the buttocks.

      Having ridden the horse all day for the first time, I had painful blisters on my backside.

      • c. 1500, Robin Hood, Bk. ii, Ch. iv, p. 236:

        With an arrowe so broad, He shott him into the backe-syde.

      • 1992 May 4, The Independent, p. 13:

        Our toilet was an outside netty shared between two or three families, where you sat on a hole and hoped the cat wouldn't jump at your backside.

   3. (obsolete) The back side of a page: a verso.
2. (figuratively) The reverse or opposite of anything.
   • 1645, John Milton, Colasterion, p. 26:

     ...to endorse him on the backside of posterity, not a golden, but a brazen Asse...

Synonyms

• (outhouse): backhouse (US, Canada); see also Wikisaurus:bathroom
• (buttocks): rear; see also Wikisaurus:buttocks
• (verso): See verso

Derived terms

• get off one's backside
• my backside
• sit on one's backside

Translations

Anagrams

• diebacks

References

• "backside, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press.