Meanings
- uncountableusuallywith onThe back of an eagle (for riding upon).
[To fly] on eagleback, or in the form of an eagle, is a widespread religious fancy. Aristophanes caricatures it in Peace (1 ff.) by sending his hero up on the back of a dungbeetle.
2012 April 24, Robert Graves, The Greek Myths: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition), Penguin, →ISBN1 more example
[…] out of the stag's forehead; he gloats over a continent of cheese and a sea of wine; even on eagleback he finds bladders of gin and good roast-beef-fruit; bread-fruit, plum-pudding-fruit […]
1918, Walter Lionel George, A Novelist on Novels, Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, page 189
Origin
From eagle + back, modelled on horseback.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
eagleback. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eagleback
“eagleback.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eagleback. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “eagleback,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eagleback.
Source: eagleback on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.