backwater

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a body of water that was created by a flood or tide or by being held or forced back by a dam
noun a place or condition in which no development or progress is occurring

From back + water.

We're drifting into a quarrelsome backwater." — The Passionate Friends, H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
We went up the backwater to Wargrave. — Three men in a boat (to say nothing of the dog), Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome
Lord Backwater’s Desborough (yellow cap and sleeves). — The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle

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