Meanings
brokeback1
- not comparablerareHunchbacked.
Damn those brokeback tramps making a mess of our city.
1 more example
... his sickle-curved posture made him look as though his back were broken: a sad little brokeback dwarf crippled with age.
1948, Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms, Part One, 1 - not comparablerareBroken; derelict.
The brokeback bridges in the hills sadden me: this place used to be beautiful.
2 more examples
There will be underground rivers, vast and wide, and huge cavernous killing zones with mist-wreathed stalagmite islands and waterfalls thundering into the subterranean depths — and stepping-stones and brokeback bridges to traverse under ...
2007, Charles Stross, Halting State, →ISBN, page 134As he drove Webb looked out at the brokeback houses, the ancient cars rusting in dirt driveways. At the ruined furniture in the weeds and ruptured refrigerators and stoves lying on their sides in the front yards. Disgraceful how they lived ...
2014, James W. Hall, The Big Finish: A Thorn Novel, →ISBN
brokeback2
alternative Brokeback
- neologismnot comparableslangHomoerotic; homosexual, gay.
I don't really think Frodo and Sam were gay, even if a couple of the scenes seemed a little brokeback to me.
1 more example
You see, your words ain't worth no money, I ain't spoke back, bitch All of you niggas hang together on some Brokeback shit
2023, “Talk'n That Shit!”, in Michael, performed by Killer Mike
Brokeback3
- alternativenot comparableAlternative spelling of brokeback in the homosexual sense.
Origin
brokeback · adjective
From break + back; first used for "hunchback" in Carson McCullers' 1943 novella The Ballad of the Sad Café.
Full word history & related roots →brokeback · adjective
From the title of Annie Proulx's 1997 short story "Brokeback Mountain"; popularised by the 2005 film of the same name.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 斷背 /断背
- 斷背 /断背 (duànbèi)(slang) homoerotic — see also homoerotic
Portuguese bicha, gay
- bicha(slang) homoerotic — see also homoerotic
- gay(slang) homoerotic — see also homoerotic
Cite this entry
brokeback. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brokeback
“brokeback.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brokeback. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “brokeback,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brokeback.
Source: brokeback on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.