backwater

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

By 2001 the paper profits pushed Ireland’s gross domestic product per capita ahead of Britain’s, fed a housing boom, and turned Dublin from a dirty backwater into a glossy tourist hub.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 7, 2025

Once viewed as an intellectual backwater, geroscience—the study of aging—is now at the frontier of biology, attracting funding and talent, inspiring new journals, and generating a flood of peer-reviewed research.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 27, 2025

Western adventurers have been turning up in Bali since the early 20th Century, when it was seen as an exotic backwater, home to Hindu temples and rice fields.

From BBC • Sep. 27, 2025

The exact coordinates of this backwater are a bit hazy, but Storyteller 2 helpfully pinpoints the locale as “a place where being from somewhere is who you are.”

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 22, 2025

Historiographic conceits aside, Polybius was born in Arcadia, notorious throughout antiquity as an irredeemable backwater.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro