aback of

English

Alternative forms

• abacka (Geordie)

Etymology

aback +‎ of

Preposition

aback of

1. (British English, US, dialectal) Behind; on the other side of
   • 1831, George Hallam, Narrative of a Voyage from Montego Bay:

     […] to effect which they must beat to windward for several days, between the west end of Cuba and the south coast of East Florida, till they get as far to the eastward as the Pan of Matanzas, a mountain so called, just aback of the town of the same name, say thirty leagues to the east of the Havanna, opposite which the gulph stream turns to a due north direction, which had been before east, and runs three, four, and five knots an hour […]

   • 1905, Alfred Thayer Mahan, Sea Power and the War of 1812, volume 2, page 68:

     The question of wind must be matter of inference from the incidents above stated: the movement of the “Lawrence” and “Queen Charlotte,” and the bracing aback of the “Niagara's” topsail.

Scots

Preposition

aback of

1. Alternative form of aback o'

References

• “aback of, prep. phr.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.