assback

English

Etymology

From ass +‎ back.

Noun

assback (plural assbacks)

1. The back of a donkey.

   Synonym: donkeyback

   Coordinate terms: muleback, horseback

   • 1691, uncredited translators, Plutarch’s Morals, Part 2, London: T. Sawbridge et al., p. 224,

     […] they took her and set her on Ass-back, and led her round about the City,

   • 1766, Tobias Smollett, Travels Through France and Italy‎, London: R. Baldwin, Volume 1, Letter 5, p. 74:

     The way of riding most used in this place is on assback.

   • 1846, Richard Ford, chapter 7, in Gatherings from Spain,‎, London: John Murray, page 74:

     Riding on assback was accounted a disgrace and a degradation to the Gothic hidalgo,

   • 1994, Robert Kelly, “In Irish America” in Queen of Terrors, Kingston, NY: McPherson, p. 56,

     […] tune soft as the assback my Savior rode from Jericho to Caerleon.

Related terms

• assload

See also

• panniers

Adverb

assback (not comparable)

1. On the back of a donkey.

   Synonym: donkeyback

   Coordinate terms: muleback, horseback

   • 1850, George Walker, “A Game of Chess with Napoleon”, in Chess and Chess-Players‎, London: Charles J. Skeet, page 260:

     […] I should have thought a great chief had something better to do than to play chess either horseback or assback.

   • 1970, Mark Perlberg, “Hiroshige”, in The Burning Field,‎, New York: William Morrow, page 7:

     That samurai is surely fast alive
     In his hunched and silhouetted dozing, assback,
     In the blur of fog,