DCHP-1 Online
backwoods ((adj.)) 
1 adj. of, or having to do with, the backwoods.
- 1835 (1926) . . . Dennistoun and I having polished our backwoods integuments a little wrote some letters.
- 1840 The tone . . . appears to have been in a great measure given by such Americans as came . . . from the back-wood tracts.
- 1959 In 1953 lobster cops raided a backwoods cannery at Pousette Lake, seven miles south of Shediac, N.B.
2 adj. native to, or living in, the backwoods.
- 1845 . . . on the large airy-looking couches [was] displayed a splendid coverlet of homespun wool . . . the possessing of which is the first ambition of a back-wood matron.
- 1963 He [the Canada jay] is a backwoods bird.
3 adj. Derog. marked by the absence of taste, tact, sophistication, etc.
- 1852 (1923) Morgan . . . went into the kitchen to light his pipe at the stove, and, with true backwood carelessness, let the hot cinder fall among the dry chips that strewed the floor.
- 1902 . . . the Front, in all matters pertaining to culture and fashion thought itself quite superior to the more backwoods country of the Twentieth.
- 1963 Richard's reasoning is backwoods, his public broadcasting of the reasoning is bush.
- 1835 (1926) . . . Dennistoun and I having polished our backwoods integuments a little wrote some letters.