Goback

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An emigrant heading west on the Oregon Trail who gave up and turned back to the east. US, derogatory, historical, sometimes

    "Although no subsequent year matched this high percentage of returnees, disconsolate "gobacks" remained a permanent feature of the overland emigrations […]"

  2. 2
    A section of honeycomb that is unfinished and returned to the hive.

    "There may be one or a dozen or perhaps a hundred or so of supers with partly filled sections, and these are all designated as "gobacks". They are either placed on top of other supers that are being built out from foundation, or upon colonies that seem to show a special aptitude for finishing up gobacks."

Synonyms

All synonyms
turnaroundturnaround

Example

More examples

"Although no subsequent year matched this high percentage of returnees, disconsolate "gobacks" remained a permanent feature of the overland emigrations […]"

Etymology

Deverbal from go back.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.