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Alienate vs Backlash - What's the difference?

alienate | backlash |

As nouns the difference between alienate and backlash

is that alienate is (obsolete) a stranger; an alien while backlash is a sudden backward motion.

As verbs the difference between alienate and backlash

is that alienate is to convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of while backlash is to cause or set off a backlash.

As an adjective alienate

is estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; with from .

alienate

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; with from .
    • O alienate from God''. (John Milton). ''Paradise Lost line 4643.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A stranger; an alien.

    • Verb

    (alienat)
  • To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.
  • To estrange; to withdraw affections or attention from; to make indifferent or averse, where love or friendship before subsisted; to wean.
  • * (rfdate) (Thomas Babington Macaulay):
    • The errors which alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart.
  • * (rfdate) (Isaac Taylor):
    • The recollection of his former life is a dream that only the more alienates him from the realities of the present.

    Usage notes

    Alienate'' is largely synonymous with estrange. However, ''alienate'' is used primarily to refer to driving off (“he ''alienated'' her with his atrocious behavior”) or to offend a group (“the imprudent remarks ''alienated'' the urban demographic”), while ''estrange is used rather to mean “cut off relations”, particularly in a family setting.

    Synonyms

    * (estrange) estrange, antagonize, isolate

    References

    * ----

    backlash

    English

    Noun

    (es)
  • A sudden backward motion.
  • A reaction, objection or outcry, especially of a violent or abrupt nature.
    • The public backlash to the proposal was quick and insistent.
  • (mechanics) The distance through which one part of connected machinery, as a wheel, piston, or screw, can be moved without moving the connected parts, resulting from looseness in fitting or from wear.
  • The jarring or reflex motion caused in badly fitting machinery by irregularities in velocity or a reverse of motion.

    • Verb

  • To cause or set off a backlash.
    • (en)