backlash

/ˌbækˈlæʃ/

/ˈbæklæʃ/

Other forms: backlashes; backlashed; backlashing

When many people react against something in the same way, you can call it a backlash. A backlash against government policies can result in mass protests.

When people get angry enough about something — or just tired of hearing about it — the result can be a backlash. An influx of refugees to a city can cause a backlash against immigration, and the popularity of a particular style of music might eventually cause a backlash against it. A true backlash involves many people acting together. The original, 1815 meaning of backlash was "recoil between parts of a machine." It wasn't until the 1950's that the figurative meaning came into use.

Definitions of backlash

1. noun

   a movement back from an impact
   synonyms: rebound, recoil, repercussion

   types:

   bounce, bouncing

   rebounding from an impact (or series of impacts)

   resilience, resiliency

   an occurrence of rebounding or springing back

   carom, ricochet

   a glancing rebound

   type of:

   motion, movement

   a natural event that involves a change in the position or location of something
2. noun

   an adverse reaction to some political or social occurrence
   “there was a backlash of intolerance”

   types:

   white backlash, whitelash

   backlash by white racists against black civil rights advances

   type of:

   reaction

   doing something in opposition to another way of doing it that you don't like
3. verb

   come back to the originator of an action with an undesired effect
   synonyms: backfire, recoil

   type of:

   come about, fall out, go on, hap, happen, occur, pass, pass off, take place

   come to pass