Dictionary

goback en · NOUN

Etymology

Deverbal from go back.

Meanings

1. (US, derogatory, historical, sometimes) An emigrant heading west on the Oregon Trail who gave up and turned back to the east.
   • Although no subsequent year matched this high percentage of returnees, disconsolate "gobacks" remained a permanent feature of the overland emigrations […] 1993, John D. Unruh, The Plains Across:
   • How many turned around and headed for wherever they came from is not known, but these "gobacks" or "turnarounds," as many emigrants called them, often complained that there was either little or no grass for their animals or that there was too much cholera or that the Indian threat was too great. 2005, David Dary, The Oregon Trail: An American Saga, page 230:
2. A section of honeycomb that is unfinished and returned to the hive.
   • There may be one or a dozen or perhaps a hundred or so of supers with partly filled sections, and these are all designated as "gobacks". They are either placed on top of other supers that are being built out from foundation, or upon colonies that seem to show a special aptitude for finishing up gobacks. 1900 August 2, “Dr. Miller's "Goback" Sections”, in American Bee Journal, volume 40:
   • Bees will then work in the whole super evenly and leave no gobacks. 1909, Gleanings in Bee Culture, volume 37, page 787:

Forms

Synonyms

turnaround