DCHP-1 Online

back country † 

• 1 unsettled regions remote from civilization; the wilderness beyond the explored areas.

  • 1785  (1943)  The poor man gave us some account of their expedition into the back country.
  • 1826  (1931)  The Hunting grounds immediately on the Northern banks of the Columbia are nearly exhausted in respect to Fur bearing Animals but the back country is still productive. . . .
  • 1955  These back-country Indians do not make friends easily. . . .
  • 1964  . . . devil's club [is] the thorned scourge of hikers in much of British Columbia's back country

• 2 a rural region; farm district.

  See also: outlands  

  • 1844  A road into the interior . . . would not only benefit Kingston, (so much in want of a productive back country) but would open new tracts for settlement. . . .
  • 1965  The nearest doctor was 70 miles away over a poor back-country road. . . .