| back | (noun) (American football) the position of a player on a football team who is stationed behind the line of scrimmage | - |
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| (noun) the side that goes last or is not normally seen | Synonyms: rear |
| (noun) a support that you can lean against while sitting | Synonyms: backrest |
| (noun) the part of a garment that covers the back of your body | - |
| (noun) the protective covering on the front, back, and spine of a book | Synonyms: binding, book binding, cover |
| (noun) the posterior part of a human (or animal) body from the neck to the end of the spine | Synonyms: dorsum |
| (noun) the series of vertebrae forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord | Synonyms: backbone, rachis, spinal column, spine, vertebral column |
| (noun) the part of something that is furthest from the normal viewer | Synonyms: rear |
| (noun) (football) a person who plays in the backfield | - |
| backache | (noun) an ache localized in the back | - |
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| backband | (noun) a broad band that passes over the back of a horse and supports the shafts of a vehicle | - |
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| backbeat | (noun) a loud steady beat | - |
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| backbench | (noun) any of the seats occupied by backbenchers in the House of Commons | - |
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| backbencher | (noun) a member of the House of Commons who is not a party leader | - |
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| backbend | (noun) an acrobatic feat in which the trunk is bent backward from a standing position until the hands touch the floor | - |
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| backbiter | (noun) one who attacks the reputation of another by slander or libel | Synonyms: defamer, libeler, maligner, slanderer, traducer, vilifier |
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| backblast | (noun) backfire from a recoilless weapon | Synonyms: back-blast |
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| backboard | (noun) a board used to support the back of someone or something | - |
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| (noun) a raised vertical board with basket attached; used to play basketball | Synonyms: basketball backboard |
| backbone | (noun) the part of a network that connects other networks together | - |
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| (noun) the part of a book's cover that encloses the inner side of the book's pages and that faces outward when the book is shelved | Synonyms: spine |
| (noun) fortitude and determination | Synonyms: grit, gumption, guts, moxie, sand |
| (noun) the series of vertebrae forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord | Synonyms: back, rachis, spinal column, spine, vertebral column |
| (noun) a central cohesive source of support and stability | Synonyms: anchor, keystone, linchpin, lynchpin, mainstay |
| backchat | (noun) light teasing repartee | Synonyms: banter, give-and-take, raillery |
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| backcloth | (noun) scenery hung at back of stage | Synonyms: backdrop, background |
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| backdoor | (noun) a secret or underhand means of access (to a place or a position) | Synonyms: back door |
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| (noun) an entrance at the rear of a building | Synonyms: back door, back entrance |
| (noun) an undocumented way to get access to a computer system or the data it contains | Synonyms: back door |
| backdown | (noun) a retraction of a previously held position | Synonyms: climb-down, withdrawal |
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| backdrop | (noun) scenery hung at back of stage | Synonyms: backcloth, background |
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| backer | (noun) someone who provides financial support for some venture | Synonyms: angel |
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| backfield | (noun) the offensive football players who line up behind the linemen | - |
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| backfire | (noun) a miscalculation that recoils on its maker | Synonyms: boomerang |
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| (noun) a loud noise made by the explosion of fuel in the manifold or exhaust of an internal combustion engine | - |
| (noun) the backward escape of gases and unburned gunpowder after a gun is fired | Synonyms: blowback |
| (noun) a fire that is set intentionally in order to slow an approaching forest fire or grassfire by clearing a burned area in its path | - |
| backflow | (noun) a flow that returns toward its source | Synonyms: backflowing |
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| backflowing | (noun) a flow that returns toward its source | Synonyms: backflow |
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| backgammon | (noun) a board game for two players; pieces move according to throws of the dice | - |
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| background | (noun) scenery hung at back of stage | Synonyms: backcloth, backdrop |
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| (noun) (computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear | Synonyms: desktop, screen background |
| (noun) a person's social heritage: previous experience or training | - |
| (noun) the part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground | Synonyms: ground |
| (noun) information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem | Synonyms: background knowledge |
| (noun) extraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured | Synonyms: background signal |
| (noun) relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation | - |
| (noun) the state of the environment in which a situation exists | Synonyms: scope, setting |
| backgrounder | (noun) a press conference or interview in which a government official explains to reporters the background of an action or policy | - |
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| backgrounding | (noun) the execution of low priority programs while higher priority programs are not using the processing system | Synonyms: background processing |
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| backhand | (noun) a return made with the back of the hand facing the direction of the stroke | Synonyms: backhand shot, backhand stroke |
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| backhander | (noun) a backhanded blow | - |
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| backhoe | (noun) an excavator whose shovel bucket is attached to a hinged boom and is drawn backward to move earth | - |
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| backing | (noun) the act of providing approval and support | Synonyms: backup, championship, patronage |
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| (noun) something forming a back that is added for strengthening | Synonyms: mount |
| (noun) financial resources provided to make some project possible | Synonyms: financial backing, financial support, funding, support |
| backlash | (noun) an adverse reaction to some political or social occurrence | - |
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| (noun) a movement back from an impact | Synonyms: rebound, recoil, repercussion |
| backlighting | (noun) lighting from behind | - |
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| backlog | (noun) an accumulation of jobs not done or materials not processed that are yet to be dealt with (especially unfilled customer orders for products or services) | - |
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| (noun) something kept back or saved for future use or a special purpose | Synonyms: reserve, stockpile |
| (noun) the large log at the back of a hearth fire | - |
| backpack | (noun) a bag carried by a strap on your back or shoulder | Synonyms: back pack, haversack, knapsack, packsack, rucksack |
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| backpacker | (noun) a hiker who wears a backpack | Synonyms: packer |
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| backpacking | (noun) carrying something in a pack on the back | Synonyms: packing |
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| backplate | (noun) plate armor protecting the back; worn as part of a cuirass | - |
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| backrest | (noun) a support that you can lean against while sitting | Synonyms: back |
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| backroom | (noun) the meeting place of a group of leaders who make their decisions via private negotiations | - |
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| backsaw | (noun) a handsaw that is stiffened by metal reinforcement along the upper edge | Synonyms: back saw |
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| backscratcher | (noun) a long-handled scratcher for scratching your back | - |
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| (noun) someone who is willing to trade favors or services for mutual advantage | - |
| backseat | (noun) a seat at the back of a vehicle (especially the seat at the back of an automobile) | - |
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| (noun) a secondary or inferior position or status | - |
| backsheesh | (noun) a relatively small amount of money given for services rendered (as by a waiter) | Synonyms: baksheesh, bakshis, bakshish, gratuity, pourboire, tip |
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| backside | (noun) the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on | Synonyms: arse, ass, behind, bottom, bum, buns, butt, buttocks, can, derriere, fanny, fundament, hind end, hindquarters, keister, nates, posterior, prat, rear, rear end, rump, seat, stern, tail, tail end, tooshie, tush |
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| (noun) the side of an object that is opposite its front | Synonyms: back end, rear |
| backslapper | (noun) someone who demonstrates enthusiastic or excessive cordiality | - |
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| backslider | (noun) someone who lapses into previous undesirable patterns of behavior | Synonyms: recidivist, reversionist |
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| backsliding | (noun) a failure to maintain a higher state | Synonyms: lapse, lapsing, relapse, relapsing, reversion, reverting |
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| backspace | (noun) the typewriter key used for back spacing | Synonyms: backspace key, backspacer |
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| backspacer | (noun) the typewriter key used for back spacing | Synonyms: backspace, backspace key |
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| backspin | (noun) spin (usually of a moving ball) that retards or reverses the forward motion | - |
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| backstage | (noun) a stage area out of sight of the audience | Synonyms: offstage, wing |
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| backstairs | (noun) a second staircase at the rear of a building | - |
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| backstay | (noun) a stay that supports the back of something | - |
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| backstitch | (noun) an overlapping stitch made by starting the next stitch at the middle of the preceding one | - |
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| backstop | (noun) a precaution in case of an emergency | - |
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| (noun) (baseball) a fence or screen (as behind home plate) to prevent the ball from traveling out of the playing field | - |
| (noun) (baseball) the person who plays the position of catcher | Synonyms: catcher |
| backstroke | (noun) a swimming stroke that resembles the crawl except the swimmer lies on his or her back | - |
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| backstroker | (noun) someone who swims the backstroke | - |
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| backswimmer | (noun) predaceous aquatic insect that swims on its back and may inflict painful bites | Synonyms: Notonecta undulata |
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| backsword | (noun) a sword with only one cutting edge | - |
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| (noun) a stick used instead of a sword for fencing | Synonyms: fencing stick, singlestick |
| backtalk | (noun) an impudent or insolent rejoinder | Synonyms: back talk, lip, mouth, sass, sassing |
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| backup | (noun) the act of providing approval and support | Synonyms: backing, championship, patronage |
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| (noun) (computer science) a copy of a file or directory on a separate storage device | Synonyms: computer backup |
| (noun) a musical part (vocal or instrumental) that supports or provides background for other musical parts | Synonyms: accompaniment, musical accompaniment, support |
| (noun) someone who takes the place of another (as when things get dangerous or difficult) | Synonyms: backup man, fill-in, relief, reliever, stand-in, substitute |
| (noun) an accumulation caused by clogging or a stoppage | - |
| backwardation | (noun) the market condition wherein the price of a forward or futures contract is trading below the expected spot price at contract maturity. | - |
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| backwardness | (noun) lack of normal development of intellectual capacities | Synonyms: mental retardation, retardation, slowness, subnormality |
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| backwash | (noun) the wave that spreads behind a boat as it moves forward | Synonyms: wake |
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| (noun) the flow of air that is driven backwards by an aircraft propeller | Synonyms: airstream, race, slipstream, wash |
| (noun) the consequences of an event (especially a catastrophic event) | Synonyms: aftermath, wake |
| backwater | (noun) a place or condition in which no development or progress is occurring | - |
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| (noun) a body of water that was created by a flood or tide or by being held or forced back by a dam | - |
| backwoods | (noun) a remote and undeveloped area | Synonyms: back country, boondocks, hinterland |
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| backwoodsman | (noun) a man who lives on the frontier | Synonyms: frontiersman, mountain man |
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| backyard | (noun) the grounds in back of a house | - |
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| biofeedback | (noun) a training program in which a person is given information about physiological processes (heart rate or blood pressure) that is not normally available with the goal of gaining conscious control of them | - |
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| blowback | (noun) Blowback is a system of operation for self-loading firearms that obtains energy from the motion of the cartridge case as it is pushed to the rear by expanding gases created by the ignition of the propellant charge. | - |
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| (noun) misinformation resulting from the recirculation into the source country of disinformation previously planted abroad by that country's intelligence service | - |
| (noun) the backward escape of gases and unburned gunpowder after a gun is fired | Synonyms: backfire |
| buyback | (noun) the act of purchasing back something previously sold | Synonyms: redemption, repurchase |
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| callback | (noun) a request by the manufacturer of a defective product to return the product (as for replacement or repair) | Synonyms: recall |
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| canvasback | (noun) North American wild duck valued for sport and food | Synonyms: Aythya valisineria, canvasback duck |
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| clawback | (noun) finding a way to take money back from people that they were given in another way | - |
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| comeback | (noun) return by a celebrity to some previously successful activity | - |
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| (noun) a quick reply to a question or remark (especially a witty or critical one) | Synonyms: counter, rejoinder, replication, retort, return, riposte |
| cornerback | (noun) a defensive football player stationed outside the linebackers | - |
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| crookback | (noun) a person whose back is hunched because of abnormal curvature of the upper spine | Synonyms: humpback, hunchback |
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| cutback | (noun) a reduction in quantity or rate | - |
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| diamondback | (noun) large deadly rattlesnake with diamond-shaped markings | Synonyms: Crotalus adamanteus, diamondback rattlesnake |
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| dieback | (noun) a disease of plants characterized by the gradual dying of the young shoots starting at the tips and progressing to the larger branches | - |
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| drawback | (noun) the quality of being a hindrance | - |
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| fallback | (noun) to break off a military action with an enemy | Synonyms: disengagement, pullout |
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| fatback | (noun) salt pork from the back of a hog carcass | - |
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| feedback | (noun) response to an inquiry or experiment | - |
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| (noun) the process in which part of the output of a system is returned to its input in order to regulate its further output | - |
| finback | (noun) large flat-headed whalebone whale having deep furrows along the throat; of Atlantic and Pacific | Synonyms: Balaenoptera physalus, common rorqual, fin whale, finback whale |
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| flashback | (noun) a transition (in literary or theatrical works or films) to an earlier event or scene that interrupts the normal chronological development of the story | - |
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| (noun) an unexpected but vivid recurrence of a past experience (especially a recurrence of the effects of an hallucinogenic drug taken much earlier) | - |
| fullback | (noun) (American football) the position of a back on a football team, generally larger in size than halfbacks | - |
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| (noun) (football) the running back who plays the fullback position on the offensive team | - |
| grayback | (noun) a dowitcher with a grey back | Synonyms: greyback, Limnodromus griseus |
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| (noun) a sandpiper that breeds in the Arctic and winters in the Southern Hemisphere | Synonyms: Calidris canutus, greyback, knot |
| greenback | (noun) a piece of paper money (especially one issued by a central bank) | Synonyms: bank bill, bank note, banker's bill, banknote, bill, Federal Reserve note, government note, note |
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| greyback | (noun) a dowitcher with a grey back | Synonyms: grayback, Limnodromus griseus |
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| (noun) a sandpiper that breeds in the Arctic and winters in the Southern Hemisphere | Synonyms: Calidris canutus, grayback, knot |
| (noun) `Johnny' was applied as a nickname for Confederate soldiers by the Federal soldiers in the American Civil War; `greyback' derived from their grey Confederate uniforms | Synonyms: Johnny, Johnny Reb, Reb, Rebel |
| halfback | (noun) (American football) the position of a back on a football team, generally smaller in size than a fullback | - |
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| (noun) (football) the running back who plays the offensive halfback position | - |
| hardback | (noun) a book with cardboard or cloth or leather covers | Synonyms: hardcover |
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| hatchback | (noun) a sloping rear car door that is lifted to open | Synonyms: hatch, hatchback door, liftgate |
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| (noun) a car having a hatchback door | - |
| hogback | (noun) a narrow ridge of hills | Synonyms: horseback |
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| horseback | (noun) the back of a horse | - |
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| (noun) a narrow ridge of hills | Synonyms: hogback |
| huckaback | (noun) toweling consisting of coarse absorbent cotton or linen fabric | Synonyms: huck |
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| humpback | (noun) large whalebone whale with long flippers noted for arching or humping its back as it dives | Synonyms: humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae |
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| (noun) a person whose back is hunched because of abnormal curvature of the upper spine | Synonyms: crookback, hunchback |
| (noun) an abnormal backward curve to the vertebral column | Synonyms: hunchback, kyphosis |
| hunchback | (noun) a person whose back is hunched because of abnormal curvature of the upper spine | Synonyms: crookback, humpback |
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| (noun) an abnormal backward curve to the vertebral column | Synonyms: humpback, kyphosis |
| kickback | (noun) a commercial bribe paid by a seller to a purchasing agent in order to induce the agent to enter into the transaction | - |
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| leatherback | (noun) wide-ranging marine turtle with flexible leathery carapace; largest living turtle | Synonyms: Dermochelys coriacea, leatherback turtle, leathery turtle |
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| linebacker | (noun) (American football) the position of a defensive football player who plays close behind the line of scrimmage | Synonyms: line backer |
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| (noun) a defensive football player who takes a position close behind the linemen | Synonyms: line backer |