wayback meaning: definition, quotations

wayback

noun

Idiomatic A very remote time or place.

Those who live in the “waybacks” should have better roads.1955, New Zealand. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates. House of Representatives:
Films and radio have penetrated to the waybacks of New Zealand and to the Pacific Islands.1968, Ralph Herbert Brookes, Ian Hugh Kawharu, Administration in New Zealand's Multi-racial Society - Issue 13, page 76:

3 more examples

For the first time since beginning his macabre descent into the wayback, Eddie had no compulsion to follow his past.2009, Patrick Millikin, Phoenix Noir, →ISBN:
...another on the sell-by date in the wayback where a living one looks out at maple elm and ash2018 Winter, Carol Ann Davis, “Another Darkness”, in Southern Review, volume 54, number 1, page 121:
There were also rumors of a lost love, a common Helium-3 miner who'd since disappeared somewhere in the wayback.2014, Homer Hickam, Crater Trueblood and the Lunar Rescue Company, →ISBN, page 1:

Idiomatic An uneducated person from a remote area.

I saw fat men or boys, lean, awkward, baldheaded, asthmatic, rheumatic, waybacks and the last editions of the nursery, blowing at that light, when along would come some stray, solemn detachment of the human telegraph line, give a puff, clasp Liberty abover her head and whirl off in the full confidence that in time he would elope with the whole female kindergarden.^([sic])1893, Robert Blair Risk, Observed and Noted, page 400:
The farmers are not the class of thickheads and mossbacks and waybacks which the Government imagine them to be.1895, Official Reports of the Debates of the House of Commons of the Dominion of Canada:

3 more examples

Unfortunately those who worked so hard for the fund did not realise the real needs of the waybacks or indeed of some settlers who are not considered waybacks.1913, Australasian Medical Gazette, page 239:
That's the right place for 'er sort—with them waybacks, who don't go to no school, and don't know nothin'.1920, George Sargant, The Winding Track, page 20:
These "waybacks" are difficult people to deal with, success depending almost entirely on the sister's personality and her understanding of these mothers' background.1954, International Child Welfare Review - Volume 8, page 41:

Dated, Informal An area in the body of a car behind the rearseat, such as the back of a station wagon, storage well in a VW bug, etc.

Only, Mercury Villagers do not have waybacks. They have third seats, rear seats, or cargo areas, but not waybacks.2005, C.J. Hribal, The Company Car: A Novel, →ISBN, page 4:
Two hours into the trip we discovered that Paul suffered from carsickness. Luckily, the wayback was equipped with built-in bins alongside the walls.2009, Gloria VanDemmeltraadt, Musing and Munching: A Memoir and Cookbook, →ISBN, page 43:

2 more examples

Jack preferred the wayback, where he could look out the zippered plastic rear window at where we'd been.2010, Hugh Macmullan, Larke, El Capitan and the Theory of Everything, →ISBN, page 52:
The suitcases and the playpen, the Frisbees and the Wiffle Balls are all packed in the wayback of the car; the snacks are on the floor of the front seat where Deje can dole them out to our hungry kids as we drive south towards Charlotte.2010, Jim McGavran, In the Shadow of the Bear: A Michigan Memoir, →ISBN: