Goback

Quick meaning: Goback is a noun meaning (US, historical, sometimes derogatory) An emigrant heading west on the Oregon Trail who gave up and turned back to the east.

Meaning

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

More Meanings

1. (beekeeping) A section of honeycomb that is unfinished and returned to the hive.

Example Sentences

Bees will then work in the whole super evenly and leave no gobacks.

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

How many turned around and headed for wherever they came from is not known, but these "gobacks" or "turnarounds," as many emigrants called them, often complained that there was either little or no grass for their animals or that there was too much cholera or that the Indian threat was too great.

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.

Word Forms

• gobacks

Synonyms for goback

Depending on context, synonyms include turnaround.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include westling, lobsterback, backwoodser, googan, taker-backer, mossyback.

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