Dictionary

wayback machine en · NOUN

Etymology

From the WABAC machine in the animated cartoon Mister Peabody, from way back (“long ago”). According to Gerard Baldwin, one of the show's directors, the spelling was a reference to the UNIVAC I computer.

Meanings

1. A time machine or other means of revisiting information from the past.
   • So let's set the wayback machine to 2009 to show an example of what I was doing back then. 2014, Michael Mowbray, Shoot to Thrill: Speedlight Flash Techniques for Photographers, →ISBN:
   • Reduced to its core, originalism promises that judges can ride a constitutional wayback machine, taking orders from the esteemed Founders. 2014, Michael Waldman, The Second Amendment: A Biography, →ISBN, page 111:
   • The star middle linebacker, who will go down in history as one of the Bears' best and most popular players, willingly jumped in the wayback machine and stopped it on a game during his second NFL season. 2008, Lew Freedman, The 50 Greatest Plays in Chicago Bears Football History, →ISBN, page 42:
   • I can't set Mr. Peabody's wayback machine to July 1, 1863, and take my entire class of fifth graders on a field trip to show them what the Battle of Gettysburg was like. I don't have a wayback machine. 2008, Terry Thompson, Adventures in Graphica, →ISBN:

Forms

Deriveds

Wayback Machine

wikipedia: Wayback Machine (Peabody's Improbable History) · wikipedia: Mister Peabody