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Outrage vs Backlash - What's the difference?

outrage | backlash |

As nouns the difference between outrage and backlash

is that outrage is an excessively violent or vicious attack; an atrocity while backlash is a sudden backward motion.

As verbs the difference between outrage and backlash

is that outrage is to cause or commit an outrage upon; to treat with violence or abuse while backlash is to cause or set off a backlash.

outrage

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • An excessively violent or vicious attack; an atrocity.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“There the cause of death was soon ascertained?; the victim of this daring outrage had been stabbed to death from ear to ear with a long, sharp instrument, in shape like an antique stiletto, which […] was subsequently found under the cushions of the hansom. […]”}}
  • An offensive, immoral or indecent act.
  • The resentful anger aroused by such acts.
  • (obsolete) A destructive rampage.
  • "by the outrage and fury of the river " (from an old description of flood damage).

    Verb

    (outrag)
  • To cause or commit an outrage upon; to treat with violence or abuse.
  • * Atterbury
  • Base and insolent minds outrage men when they have hope of doing it without a return.
  • * Broome
  • This interview outrages all decency.
  • (archaic) To violate; to rape (a female).
  • (obsolete) To rage in excess of.
  • (Young)

    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)