Meanings
nounbackcloth (plural backcloths)
plural backcloths
- The painted scenery at the back of a stage; the backdrop.
Every day the coast looked the same, as though we had not moved; but we passed various places - trading places - with names like Gran’ Bassam, Little Popo, names that seemed to belong to some sordid farce acted in front of a sinister backcloth.
1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 203
Synonyms & antonyms
Also see
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
backcloth. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/backcloth
MLA
“backcloth.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/backcloth. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “backcloth,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/backcloth.
Source: backcloth on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.