[f. BACK adv.]
1. A setting back; a reverse, check, relapse. (Of Sc. origin.)
1721. Wodrow, Hist., II. 555 (Jam.). The people of God have got many backsets one after another.
1816. Calhoun, Wks., II. 170. It would give a back set, and might … endanger their ultimate success.
1883. American, V. 373. A backset which some good judges pronounced fatal.
2. An eddy or counter-current.
1882. Harper’s Mag., LXV. 612. The backset caused by the overflow.
1883. Fortn. Rev., July, 119. The back-set of some deeper-flowing stream.
