How to Use backwash in a Sentence

backwash

noun
  • The backwash from waves hitting the shore made the surfing there bumpy.
    — Sophie Cocke, ProPublica, 5 Dec. 2020
  • The rocks could also cause a high-tide backwash, Wilson said.
    — Laylan Connelly, Orange County Register, 17 Apr. 2017
  • This backwash is called acid reflux or even simply just reflux.
    — Korin Miller, SELF, 26 Apr. 2018
  • Just like backwash hitting the surf, the result could be turbulent.
    — Jen Schwartz, Scientific American, 1 Aug. 2018
  • The captain also had to keep the unicorn from getting caught up in the backwash of the ship’s engine.
    — Iliana Magra, New York Times, 28 Aug. 2020
  • Retain their own then let the initial wave of big money spending wash over them before searching the backwash for good deals.
    — David Moore, Dallas News, 17 Mar. 2021
  • Watery with pebble- and fleck-size bits of squash and carrots that reminded me of sipping a toddler’s backwash.
    — Alex Beggs, Bon Appétit, 24 Nov. 2021
  • This generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of green energy.
    — Philip B. Russell, The Mercury News, 19 July 2019
  • Behind these high water marks are remnants of backwash channels carved by the retreating water.
    — William Herkewitz, Popular Mechanics, 19 May 2016
  • This was part of the backwash from the rising secularism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
    — Joan Acocella, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2021
  • Yet the bill carves out interest from muni debt from MAGI so that states and cities don’t get caught in the backwash.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 27 Sep. 2021
  • Rarick said backwash from the waves hitting this stretch of coastline hardened with sandbags, tarps and boulders is also disrupting the famous surf breaks.
    — Sophie Cocke, ProPublica, 20 Oct. 2012
  • Bidon is cycling lingo and the French word for water bottle, and the fans pleaded for one as a race souvenir, Covid-19 and backwash be damned.
    — New York Times, 14 Apr. 2021
  • Much of this might seem the amusing backwash of a raucous democracy, but competing claims of patriotism are helping wedge America apart.
    — Doug Struck, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 July 2018
  • This backwash can irritate the lining of your esophagus and cause symptoms like heartburn, chest pain, difficulty swallowing, feeling like there’s a lump in your throat, a chronic cough, laryngitis, and disrupted sleep.
    — Korin Miller, SELF, 14 Dec. 2018
  • Phoenix Fire Department officials say the woman was treated for dizziness and nausea but suffered no other ill effects when the stretcher spun ever-faster in the backwash of the helicopter's rotor blades.
    — orlandosentinel.com, 6 June 2019
  • Cleaning regularly is important because there will inevitably be some backwash in your rinsing apparatus after use, which can contain virus particles, bacteria, allergens or other irritants that were flushed from the nose, Lane said.
    — Washington Post, 22 Apr. 2022
  • Recorded following the filming of his latest sci-fi, Ash (whose score is some of FlyLo’s most boilerplate, Stranger-Things-backwash sounding music yet), this short, seven-song EP dips back into the frantic BPMs of his earlier releases to see if there’s any juice left in the cartridge.
    — Sam Goldner, Pitchfork, 9 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'backwash.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: