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/bˈækbˌoʊn/ Listen

Backbone

noun

A central cohesive source of support and stability. Synonyms: anchor, keystone, linchpin, lynchpin, mainstay. "The keystone of campaign reform was the ban on soft money" , "He is the linchpin of this firm"

Fortitude and determination. Synonyms: grit, gumption, guts, moxie, sand.

The series of vertebrae forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord. Synonyms: back, rachis, spinal column, spine, vertebral column.

The part of a book's cover that encloses the inner side of the book's pages and that faces outward when the book is shelved. Synonym: spine.

The part of a network that connects other networks together.

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Etymology of 'Backbone'

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"Backbone" Quotes from Famous Books

... from one hundred to fifty, and the horses began to fail so rapidly that they had to abandon the carts, while the men were becoming completely exhausted from the endless cutting and hacking of the scrub. At length they surmounted the range, the backbone of the peninsula, and on the western slope, amid the heads of the rivers flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria, made better progress. Kennedy, however, adhered to his instructions to examine the eastern slope, and recrossed the watershed, ...

— The Explorers of Australia and their Life-work • Ernest Favenc

... a sound that I did not make myself. Whatever had become of the hounds, and the other hunters? The higher I climbed the more I liked it. After an hour I was sure that I could reach the rim by this route, and of course that stimulated me. To make sure, and allay doubt, I sat down on a high backbone of bare rock and studied the heave and bulge of ridge above me. Using my glasses I made sure that I could climb out. It would be a task equal to those of lion-hunting days with Jones, and it made me happy to ...

— Tales of lonely trails • Zane Grey

... of war with England; such was the noble opposition of the States of New York and New England to that unholy coalition between the American President and the oppressor of Europe against human liberty—States which had been the head and the sinews and the backbone of American resistance to Great Britain during the struggle for American independence, and which, having achieved that independence, abhorred being buccaneers against the independence of Canada, and the acquisition of the Indian ...

— The Loyalists of America and Their Times, Vol. 2 of 2 - From 1620-1816 • Edgerton Ryerson

... company) Beltelcom which is a monopoly domestic: local - Minsk has a digital metropolitan network and a cellular NMT-450 network; waiting lists for telephones are long; local service outside Minsk is neglected and poor; intercity - Belarus has a partly developed fiber-optic backbone system presently serving at least 13 major cities (1998); Belarus' fiber optics form synchronous digital hierarchy rings through other countries' systems; an inadequate analog system remains operational international: country code ...

— The 2004 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... afraid. I like shooting and hunting; but these Frenchmen have no backbone for sport. Will you believe it, one has the greatest difficulty in getting a good knock at polo unless there is a crowd ...

— A Son of the Immortals • Louis Tracy

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