a. Also 5 bro·ke-bak, -backed.
1. Having a broken back; formerly, also, having a deformed or dislocated spine, hunch-backed. Also transf. and fig.
c. 1400. Gamelyn, 720. Broke-bak scherreue euel mot thou the!
1470. Harding, Chron., clvii. iii. This Edmond … Brokebacked and bowbacked bore.
1530. Palsgr., 307/1. Broken backed, arne.
1883. St. James’s Gaz., 21 Dec., 4/1. The broken-backed Government of Tewfik.
2. Naut. (See quot. and BREAK v. 7 b.)
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Broken-backed, the state … of a ship, which is so loosened in her frame … as to droop at each end.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 101. Broken-backed or hogged.
