unbacked meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

unbacked

adj

Etymology From un- + backed.

Having no back.

Not supported or backed up (by someone or something).

The warlike Wench amongst the Greekes doth stand Vnbackt by Troy, left of her Damsels all, The battery of a thousand swords she bides, Till her yron plates are hew’d off from her sides.1609, Thomas Heywood, Troia Britanica: or, Great Britaines Troy, London: W. Iaggard, Canto 14, stanza 103, p. 381:
The simple statement, unbacked by any proof but the weight of Ralph’s new authority, brought light and happiness.1954, William Golding, Lord of the Flies:

1 more example

This was an intellectual decision, unbacked by moral energy.1962, Doris Lessing, “Free Women: 2”, in The Golden Notebook, New York: Bantam, published 1979, page 306:

Having no (or few) backers.

Obsolete Of an animal: never having been ridden or not accustomed to being ridden; not (currently) being ridden.

[…] like unback’d colts, they prick’d their ears, Advanced their eyelids, lifted up their noses As they smelt music:1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
[…] a well wayed horse will safely convay thee to thy journeys end, when an unbackt Filly may by chance give thee a fall:1646, John Suckling, Fragmenta Aurea, London: Humphrey Moseley, page 71:

3 more examples

[…] whoever has seen a fine arabian war-horse, unback’d and at liberty, and in a wanton trot, cannot but remember what a large waving line his rising, and at the same time pressing forward, cuts through the air;1753, William Hogarth, chapter 17, in The Analysis of Beauty, London: for the author, page 140:
1823, Mary Shelley, Valperga, London: G. and W.B. Whittaker, Volume 2, Chapter 10, p. 237, […] having visited his charger which was to be led unbacked to the field, he mounted a black palfrey;
Shakbolt must have had apoplexy at the thought of his ramping war-horses answering to that description. He used to buy unbacked devils, and tame them by starvation.1890, Rudyard Kipling, “The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney”, in Mine Own People, New York: Manhattan Press, page 176:

Arts, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Photography (of a plate) Not having an antihalation backing.