backside

plural backsides · alternative back-side · alternative back side

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

   I gazed uncomprehendedly at the unfinished backside of the wall of the next room and wondered what had happened to my face.

   1987 June 17, Vic Bubbett, “Rambling Reflections: When a ‘red telephone call’ comes in, it can change one’s life forever and ever”, in The Dothan Progress, volume 16, number 48, Dothan, Ala., →OCLC, page 3-A, column 3

2. The back side of anything, the part opposite its front
   1. The back side of an estate: the backyard and outbuildings behind a main house, especially (UK dialect, euphemistic) an outhouse.

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

      Synonyms: backhouse

   2. euphemisticA person's buttocks.

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

      2 more examples

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

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

      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.

      1992 May 4, The Independent, page 13

      Synonyms: rear

   3. obsoleteThe back side of a page: a verso.

      Synonyms: verso

3. figurativelyThe reverse or opposite of anything.

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

   1645, John Milton, Colasterion, page 26

4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see back, side.

alternative back-side · alternative back side

1. not comparableboard sportsApproaching an obstacle backward.