backscratch

plural backscratches

1. A scratch on the back.

   Backscratches keep improving but the itch increases.

   1989, Common Lives, Lesbian Lives, numbers 29-32, page 20

   3 more examples

   Several Colorado papers have reproduced the substance of our articles on silver, and we thank them for their backscratches.

   1931, The Mines Magazine, volume 21, page 9

   I had to admit he had nice fingernails and a backscratch would have felt just fine.

   2011, Denise Giardina, The Unquiet Earth: A Novel

   Series of clotheslines no-sold, so Haku tries backscratches, and, interestingly, that finally works.

   2013, Ben Undelson, Fiction. A Nostalgic Guide to Growing up with the WWF

present singular third person backscratches · participle present backscratching · participle past backscratched · past backscratched

1. To scratch one's or another's back.

   So it is to the mutual advantage of social primates to backscratch for each other.

   1995, Stephen R. Kellert, The Biophilia Hypothesis, page 397

   3 more examples

   That thought appeared to discompose her greatly, though Jasper made light of it by rapidly back-scratching with his hind legs and giving a short stern bark, just to assure her that strangers would be rushed off the property on sight.

   1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 127

   He enjoyed being hugged, backscratched, and tickled and sat quietly next to the examiner after testing while a parental interview was conducted.

   1984, Michael D. Powers, Behavioral Assessment of Severe Developmental Disabilities

   […] primate's inclination to backscratch and delouse rather than venture into the dangerous country beyond familiar tramping grounds.

   2000, David Michael Jacobs, UFOs and Abductions: Challenging the Borders of Knowledge, page 190

2. slangbusinessTo engage in a reciprocal beneficial action.

   It was backscratched into existence, cost nearly a billion pounds, and now they are wondering why they let it happen.

   2003, Ralph Steadman, Doodaaa: The Balletic Art of Gavin Twinge, page 105

   2 more examples

   The fount of social problems, he argues, is that human morality grew out of the natural principles of tit-for-tat and mutual backscratching.

   2008, Nicholas Fearn, The Latest Answers to the Oldest Questions

   Whether referred to as bargaining, logrolling, or backscratching, the effect is the same: "you support me, I'll support you."

   2007, Jeffrey M. Elliot, The Presidential-Congressional Political Dictionary, page 178