Noun

• The water held back by a dam or other obstruction
• (idiomatic) A remote place; somewhere that remains unaffected by new events, progresses, ideas, etc.
• A rowing stroke in which the oar is pushed forward to stop the boat; see back water

Synonyms

• (small, backwards place): jerkwater town, one-horse town, Podunk
• remote place

Exemple

• It’s a volume for those who delight in exploring the backwaters of nineteenth-century opera.
• Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

Verb

• To row or paddle a backwater stroke.
• (idiomatic) To vacillate on a long-held position.

Noun

• (now chiefly dialectal) A small stream of running water; a channel for water; a drain.
• A large, landlocked stretch of water.
• A large amount of liquid; as, a wine lake.
• (obsolete) A pit, or ditch

Examples

• Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days’ cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.
• So you punched out a window for ventilation. Was that before or after you noticed you were standing in a lake of gasoline?