Layback
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A spin in which the head and shoulders are dropped backwards and the back arched downwards toward the ice; also called a layback spin.
"Mirai Nagasu, like Zhang a promising 14-year-old, showed equally astonishing flexibility on a layback spin Wednesday, leaning so far that the back of her head nearly touched her backside."
- 2 A maneuver to scale a vertical crack, by pulling with the arms and jamming the legs underneath, and shuffling up one limb at a time.
"A layback, on the other hand, forces you to pull with your arms. A layback can protrude so far from the main rock face, that your legs will be dangling uselessly in the air, while your arms support all of your body weight. The tricky thing about the layback is that not only do you need the upper-body strength to hold yourself up and climb hand over hand, but you also need the flexibility and balance to clear the edge of the overhang."
- 3 A surf maneuver where the upright surfer leans back against the wave.
- 4 A trick where the boarder leans back while on the lip of the ramp, or down a rail.
- 5 The process of recording the final sound onto the master track.
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- 6 A short backwards pass to a teammate in an attacking position.
"Only a fine interception from Mickael Silvestre denied the marauding Czech international an early chance from Tomasz Radzinski's layback and, as United struggled to find any momentum, their hosts threatened to overwhelm them."
- 7 A wedge-shaped kerbstone that allows a vehicle to enter a driveway without a bump
- 1 To climb using layback maneuvers.
Example
More examples"Mirai Nagasu, like Zhang a promising 14-year-old, showed equally astonishing flexibility on a layback spin Wednesday, leaning so far that the back of her head nearly touched her backside."
Etymology
From lay + back (presumably from confusion between lay and lie).
Related phrases
More for "layback"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.