backwater

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a part of a river away from the main current, where the water is still or slow-moving

   The canoe drifted into a quiet backwater screened by reeds.

2. 2
   noun

   water held back by an obstruction such as a dam

   The flood raised the backwater behind the temporary barrier.

3. 3
   noun

   a remote or neglected place, field, or institution that is little affected by change

   The village was once treated as an economic backwater.

A compound of back and water. It first named water backed up or lying outside a river's main current; the figurative sense developed for places and fields seen as isolated from the main flow of events.

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