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Nautical. water thrown backward by the motion of oars, propellers, paddle wheels, etc.
Aeronautics. the portion of the wash of an aircraft that flows to the rear, usually created by the power plant.
Compare wash (def 31).
a condition, usually undesirable, that continues long after the event which caused it.
to affect, as by hitting, rocking, or splashing, with a backwash:
a powerful cutter backwashing the skiers.
to clean out (a clogged filter) by reversing the flow of fluid:
Backwash the swimming pool’s filters regularly.
Historical Examples

There was a crash, and she swung clear with the backwash, with all one side smashed in.
Masters of the Wheat-Lands Harold Bindloss

The backwash of civilization in the Orient is not our concern.
Peking Dust Ellen N. La Motte

But they are highly entertaining to read because they so faithfully mirror the backwash of romanticism.
Shandygaff Christopher Morley

I must write you of what I have seen, the other side, the backwash.
The Backwash of War Ellen N. La Motte

Just so; an’ for that reason I now believe it wor comin’ down, an’ stopped somewhere just outside the backwash.
Gwen Wynn Mayne Reid

One seems on the other side of creation’s wall—in the backwash of the waters.
The Secrets of a Kuttite Edward O. Mousley

She warns us to look out for the backwash of the bad vortex in which (her beam shows it) she is even now reeling.
With The Night Mail Rudyard Kipling

Does the Sahib know whither the backwash of the flood had borne me?
Soldiers Three Rudyard Kipling

By the backwash it must be making for the dock and stair; the men in it, or one of them, for the Court.
Gwen Wynn Mayne Reid

The cab took off with a rush that left Feldman in a backwash of slush and mud.
Badge of Infamy Lester del Rey

noun
a sucking movement of water, such as that of retreating waves Compare swash (sense 4)
water washed backwards by the motion of oars or other propelling devices
the backward flow of air set up by an aircraft’s engines
a condition resulting from a previous event; repercussion
verb
(transitive) to remove oil from (combed wool)
n.

1876, “motion of a receeding wave,” from back (adj.) + wash (n.).

noun

Something drunk that is regurgitated or spit back out

verb

To regurgitate or spit back out liquid