backbone

CEFRB2

/ˈbækˌbəʊn/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
The row of bones running down the middle of your back.
02
noun
The main support or strength of something.

Examples

He is an American to the backbone.
Will he have the backbone to speak out against the bill?

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 1
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 3

Also pronounced

/ˈbækˌboʊn/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

Any fundamental support, structure, or infrastructure.
Courage, fortitude, or strength.
The series of vertebrae, separated by disks, that encloses and protects the spinal cord, and runs down the middle of the back in vertebrate animals.

More examples

In context

Before automobiles, railroads were a backbone of commerce.
He would make a good manager, if he had a little more backbone.
Undoubtedly it can be said that the humble 0-6-0 has been the backbone for general service, or general utility on British railways right from their earliest days, and is likely to remain so.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The spine, or blank, supports the entire structure of the human body.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

Undoubtedly it can be said that the humble 0-6-0 has been the backbone for general service, or general utility on British railways right from their earliest days, and is likely to remain so.
1945 November and December, H. C. Casserley, “Random Reflections on British Locomotive Types—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 320
With little regular employment available in East Kent the backbone of the Kent Coast passenger traffic is therefore the commuters, the not inconsiderable numbers of people who travel each day to their work in Faversham, Sittingbourne, the Medway Towns and most of all, London.
1959 April, P. Ransome-Wallis, “The Southern in Trouble on the Kent Coast”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 212
East [Street] and West Street form a single thoroughfare running as a backbone through the village, flanked by neat, painted cottages of predominantly 18th-century brick.
1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 220, about Hambledon, Hants
The San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) and other community-based organizations that "provide backbone and leadership" in AIDS services are "reeling under the impact of growing case loads," said Pat Christen, SFAF's new director.
1989 December 10, John Zeh, “AIDS Groups' Execs Arrested In D.C.”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 22, page 1
The backbone of our research is an extensive corpus of contemporary spoken Esperanto.
2022, Sabine Fiedler, Cyril Robert Brosch, “Methods and data” (chapter 5), in Esperanto – Lingua Franca and Language Community, John Benjamins Publishing Company, →DOI, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OL, page 22

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Origin

noun

From Middle English bakbon, bakebon, bac-bon; equivalent to back + bone. Compare the semantically analogous English ridgebone.

Deep Dive

noun

More examples

Related

Quick test

The spine, or blank—, supports the entire structure of the human body.

Nearby

Origin

noun

The spine, or blank, supports the entire structure of the human body.