[f. BACK sb. or a.]
1. A plate of armor for the back.
1656. Trapp, Exp. Eph. vi. 14. No mention of a back-plate because the Christian soldier should never fly.
1820. Scott, Monast., xxxv. Armed with cuirass and back-plate.
1859. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., V. 170/1. The fresh-water, and the mud Tortoise … have a sacrum … soldered … to the back-plate.
2. A plate placed at or forming the back.
1772. Wollaston, in Phil. Trans., LXIII. 78. The cock is fastened to the back-plate of the clock itself.
