saddleback

English

Pronunciation

  • Audio (General Australian):(file)

Etymology 1

From saddle +‎ back.

Noun

saddleback (plural saddlebacks)

  1. A saddle-shaped ridge forming a shallow pass between two peaks.
  2. A roof in the same shape, having a gable at each end.
  3. (architecture) A coping that is thicker in the middle than at the edges.
  4. Any of various creatures having a saddle-shaped marking on the back.
  5. A breed of pig which is black with a pink saddle-shaped marking.
  6. (geology) An anticline.
  7. (UK) A great black-backed gull.
  8. (New Zealand) A passerine bird of the genus Philesturnus.
    • 1959, Robert Adams Wilson, Bird Islands of New Zealand, page 67:
      The young bird had the plumage of the saddleback, not the even chestnut of the jackbird, although its plumage was rather duller than that of the adult.
  9. A variety of domestic goose.
  10. A raccoon oyster.
  11. A harp seal.
  12. A larva of the bombycid moth.
Derived terms
Translations

Adjective

saddleback (not comparable)

  1. saddle-backed

Adverb

saddleback (not comparable)

  1. saddle-backed

Etymology 2

From Saddleback Church of Lake Forest, California. Coined in a contest held by columnist Dan Savage, in response to its support for California Proposition 8.

Verb

saddleback (third-person singular simple present saddlebacks, present participle saddlebacking, simple past and past participle saddlebacked)

  1. (slang) To engage in anal sex with the intention of preserving one's virginity. (chiefly by Christian teenagers)
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:saddleback.
Hypernyms