How to Use backwater in a Sentence

backwater

noun
  • The once sleepy backwater is now a thriving city.
  • The Arctic is no longer a frozen backwater.
    — Paul McCarthy, Boston Herald, 23 Jan. 2026
  • Woe betide a beetle or a grasshopper perched on a leaf above the backwaters where these fish lurk.
    — Jonathan Balcombe, Scientific American, 1 May 2017
  • This is Las Vegas, not some backwater town where the game is the whole thing.
    — oregonlive, 12 Dec. 2022
  • In the hockey world, the borough would go from backwater to mecca.
    — Justin Davidson, Curbed, 10 Feb. 2026
  • It was long viewed within the government as a sleepy backwater.
    — New York Times, 25 May 2021
  • And when there's more water in the river, those backwaters are flushing faster.
    — Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 8 Mar. 2023
  • Of course, the perception is that this market is a backwater.
    — Tom Taulli, Forbes, 3 Sep. 2021
  • Anyhow, please don’t dismiss her as a spinster in a backwater.
    — Ted Scheinman, The Atlantic, 22 July 2017
  • My favorite meal ever would have to be in the backwaters of Kerala on a house boat.
    — Cnt Editors, CNT, 8 Mar. 2017
  • The area used to be a lot of things, mostly neglected, an urban backwater.
    — Carl Nolte, SFChronicle.com, 28 Sep. 2019
  • Elsewhere, the fury seems aimed at the accident of his own birth in backwater Spain.
    — Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 18 Dec. 2023
  • Two resorts, direct flights, and an influx of tourists will mean that the island will no longer be a sleepy backwater.
    — Hudson Lindenberger, Forbes, 25 Mar. 2025
  • Take the short two-mile drive to Taylor Lake to see one of the river’s scenic backwater lakes.
    — Jenna Blough, Outside Online, 8 Apr. 2025
  • The state now largely exists in popular culture as a backwater; the butt of jokes.
    — Jason Linkins, The New Republic, 23 Oct. 2021
  • Most botanists from the mid-19th century viewed their study as a research backwater.
    — Alla Katsnelson, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2025
  • Among the attractions are canoe trails that pierce the river's backwaters.
    — Phil Marty, chicagotribune.com, 15 Mar. 2018
  • After decades under the radar, this once-sleepy backwater is on the road to overdevelopment.
    — Peter Jon Lindberg, Condé Nast Traveler, 20 Nov. 2018
  • The movie goes from this weird, seedy love motel to the industrial backwaters, and these long walks and talks down empty streets.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 1 June 2026
  • One of the biggest black holes ever found sits in a cosmic backwater, like a towering skyscraper in a small town.
    — Sarah Lewin Frasier, Scientific American, 7 Apr. 2016
  • The Park Service also doused the backwater with a fish-killing poison.
    — WIRED, 4 Nov. 2023
  • The Detroit music scene during those years was small and felt a bit like a cultural backwater.
    — David Peisner, Rolling Stone, 20 May 2024
  • The city may have been a relative backwater in the mid 19th century.
    — Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 19 Apr. 2023
  • But Dublin was a European backwater then.
    — Jody Mamone, Hartford Courant, 16 Mar. 2026
  • Who knew there’d be so many backwater swamps, potholes and detours on the road to making America great again.
    — Steve Lopez, Mercury News, 7 May 2025
  • In just a matter of decades, their nation has gone from an impoverished backwater to one of the wealthiest in the world.
    — Ben Westcott, CNN, 2 Oct. 2019
  • Over the next three years, Iran emerged from a digital backwater into one of the most prolific cyber armies in the world.
    — New York Times, 4 Feb. 2021
  • But in 2005 this backwater bank incurred the wrath and might of the world’s financial hegemon.
    — The Economist, 19 May 2018
  • But the job brought him face to face with the bleakness of daily life, especially in the backwater rural corners of the country.
    — David E. Hoffman, Washington Post, 30 Aug. 2022
  • Some of the coolest crappie fishing of the year occurs in backwaters that are easily accessible by foot.
    — Cory Schmidt, Outdoor Life, 15 Apr. 2026

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

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