outbackadv.adj.n.

1852 G. C. Furber Ike McCandliss 43/1 Andrew..had been..busy making up more pie crust, while the others were out back, busy cooking the pies.

1873 Rep. Commissioners Great Fire Boston 49 I felt we could make a stand at that time, but come to look out back, there was a narrow passage-way that led from Otis street.

1892 ‘M. Twain’ Amer. Claimant iii. 36 There was a message, now, from out back, and Colonel Sellers went out there in answer to it.

1964 T. Wolfe in Esquire Feb. 97 If this wasn't such a high-class joint we would take wiseacres like you out back and beat you into jellied madrilene.

1986 New Yorker 20 Oct. 48/1 The boy I liked was at the party, and he stood out back and talked with me while the grown-ups, mostly the fathers, got drunk.

2000 Michigan Q. Rev. 39 439 The brick wall was gone, the garage was replaced by a deck out back, and the living room appeared to have been turned into a wet bar.

1859 Rep. & Coll. State Hist. Soc. Wisconsin 1857–58 IV. 380 Enoch Darling..came [to Watertown] from Milwaukee to hold a Coroner's Inquest. Strange rumors had reached the Lake shore, of a man having been murdered and burned out back, and it was decreed necessary to have a legal investigation.

1869 Wagga Wagga Advertiser 17 Apr. 3/3 Grass will be abundant out back.

1878 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Ups & Downs iii. 31 There was not a streak of crimson in the pearly dawnlight, as the whole party..rode silently along the indistinct trail which led ‘out back’.

1901 M. Franklin My Brilliant Career iii. 12 The boys, as they attained manhood, drifted Out Back to shear, drove, or to take up land.

1936 I. L. Idriess Cattle King i. 2 Fascinating stories..of the big mobs outback.

1965 L. Walker Other Girl 12 Do you mean to say you came outback without a spare?

1981 A. Marshall Austral. 24 He talked of his experience outback.

1893 Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Nov. 20/4 Trying to make a paradise out of the Out Back Hell.

1913 W. K. Harris Outback in Austral. i. 2 Of course, you get various opinions of Outback hospitality.

1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Oct. 738/1 Sydney was the natural centre of outback adventurers.

1957 Times 11 May 7/6 In its own way the project is as brave as any bit of outback pioneering for metals or minerals.

1975 Economist (Nexis) 25 Jan. 61 Oman, awash with petrodollars, has awarded a contract worth £22m to Hawker Siddeley..to build a series of diesel power stations to supply outback areas of the country.

1977 A. Wilson Strange Ride R. Kipling iii. 157 ‘Men only’ bars are disappearing even in outback Australia.

1991 Midnight Zoo 1 v. 8/1 A group of teenagers encountered a tribe of diminutive luminous humanlike figures on the outback highways of Nome, Alaska.

1893 J. A. Barry Steve Brown's Bunyip 51 ‘Yes, I'm from out back,’ said a dark, wiry little man, as he dismounted from his horse at a Queensland frontier-township hotel.

1901 H. Lawson Joe Wilson & his Mates 105 ‘Out-Back’ is always west of the Bushman, no matter how far out he be.]

1904 Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Apr. 16/4 In the heart of the Out-back, when the tucker-bag gets low [etc.]

1907 Gentleman's Mag. July 78 These young dwellers in the Out Back have often no educational opportunities.

1911 in E. M. Clowes On Wallaby iv. 115 The Outback can still breed some true mates.

1920 B. Cronin Timber Wolves 9 In the seclusion of the outback they are at liberty to revert to grossness unspeakable.

1930 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 July 577/2 Its travesty of the essentially peaceable ‘outback’ is no worse than the scenario writer would think permissible.

1955 Times 6 July 17/3 The Duke of Edinburgh..cited, and discussed in detail, the scope for aircraft in the outback.

1977 Hongkong Standard 12 Apr. 9/6 It still has not as yet agreed to finance the cost of building a prototype solar-energy collection and storage plant in the Australian outback.

1994 Onset Mag. (Toronto) Aug.–Sept. 35/3 If you've got the skills, you just might land seasonal work as a ranch hand or sheep shearer in the Outback.

1954 R. Sutcliff Eagle of Ninth ix. 97 He was for ever meeting her in her litter, as he came and went about Calleva, to the..Golden Vine, from whose stables he and Esca had lately hired ponies once or twice for a trip into the outback.

1963 Times 20 Apr. 9/7 The recent wave of village school and mosque building in this hitherto neglected outback [in Turkey].

1972 Guardian 3 Apr. 2/5 Senator Humphrey's statement came after a 14-hour swing around the Wisconsin outback.

1975 Times 5 Dec. 1/4 Mr. Wilson's statement..provided a field day for..skinheads of the parliamentary outback.

1991 W. Shed What Money Hath (& Hathn't) Wrought in Baseball & Lesser Sports 104 Ballplayers from the outback can be unduly disturbed the first time they see themselves misquoted.