The warlike Wench amongst the Greekes doth stand
Vnbackt by Troy, left of her Damsels all,
The battery of a thousand swords she bides,

This was an intellectual decision, unbacked by moral energy.

[…] a well wayed horse will safely convay thee to thy journeys end, when an unbackt Filly may by chance give thee a fall:

[…] whoever has seen a fine arabian war-horse, unback’d and at liberty, and in a wanton trot, cannot but remember what a large waving line his rising, and at the same time pressing forward, cuts through the air;

1823, Mary Shelley, Valperga, London: G. and W.B. Whittaker, Volume 2, Chapter 10, p. 237,
[…] having visited his charger which was to be led unbacked to the field, he mounted a black palfrey;

Shakbolt must have had apoplexy at the thought of his ramping war-horses answering to that description. He used to buy unbacked devils, and tame them by starvation.

Unbacked

Meaning

Adj

Origin

Related