Top of Page Home Search Heritage Web Site A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z



back a [ = located at the rear of something] DC back-tilt Labr (1770-) for comb in sense 2.
   1 Phr no back doors about: no hesitation or shyness in speaking out.
   C 69-28 People get a big kick out of the story, in that Uncle Tom had no 'backdoors about it' at all, but came right out with it. P 148-70 There are no back doors about him.
   2 Comb back cove point and other placenames.
   1951 Nfld & Lab Pilot i, 202 A 2-fathom ... shoal extends about half a cable offshore from Back Cove point.
   back harbour: the innermost of adjacent coves; innermost part of an inlet, bay or harbour.
   1854 [FEILD] 32-3 In the afternoon I walked over to the back harbour or bight [St Francis Hr]. P 245-57 ~ That part of the harbour behind the main body of water.
   back house: room in 'outport' house leading off from the kitchen and used for storage, as an entranceway, etc; cp HOUSE 2.
   [1886] LLOYD 76-7 There is a small 'back house' or 'porch' built on the warmest side of the hut, in which firewood is kept. 1893 Christmas Greeting 15 So we whipped him off the bars agin to give him dacent burial—tho' perhaps he didn't disarve it—an' we put him in the back house. 1979 COOPER 28 "Winter": Cold Winter's sun has set, and it is night, / And from the old 'back-house' a cheerful light / Falls on the door yard snows, and wood shed near.
   back junk: see JUNK.
   back kitchen: see back house.
   1979 TIZZARD 25 [I recall him building] a second storey over the back kitchen... This house in which I matured, measured seventeen by twenty four feet and the back kitchen part attached to it measured fourteen by sixteen feet.
   back shore: innermost part of a harbour.[1775] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 115 I put some traps out for foxes, on the back-shore. 1972 NEMEC 83 [They] fish the shoals ... off the eastern shoreline ('Back Shore') past Cape Pine into Trepassey Bay.
   back side: see back shore.
   [1663] 1963 YONGE [facing p. 81] Back side [at Ferryland]. 1858 [LOWELL] i, 138 'Sh' went right round the corner o' the house, an' down to—back part o' the place, here—' ' 'Is; Backside, sir, we calls it,' says a neighbor. 1953 Nfld & Lab Pilot ii, 127 Backside cove is entered around 1¼ miles south-westward of Southern head.
   back stock: the wooden part of a shotgun, held to the shoulder when firing.
   T 164-65 They picked up their guns. Some of 'em had their back-stocks broke and more of 'em didn't. T 190-65 If you was to step over the back-stock of a gun, oh my, you'd have to step right back again, backwards without turning around.
   back tilt: temporary shelter in woods set up with sloping roof towards the wind and with a fire in front; a shelter or 'tilt' with back part only; BOUGH TILT.
   [1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 58 We did not go far up the brook, before we constructed a back-tilt; we made a good fire in front, and passed the night there. 1792 ibid Gloss i, xvi A Back-tilt is a shed made of boughs, resembling the section of a roof; the back part is placed towards the wind, and a fire is generally made in the front. 1863 MORETON 80 Their only shelter for night was a shed, such as is called a back-tilt, made of a punt's sail strained along the ground on one side, and supported at an angle of about forty-five degrees from the ground by stakes. The ends are walled in with boughs, and the whole front is open; whence its name, being a back shelter only.

Go Back