From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbackwaterback‧wa‧ter /ˈbækwɔːtə $ -wɒːtər, -wɑː-/ noun [countable] 1 FARa very quiet place not influenced by outside events or new ideas – used to show disapproval a rural backwater2 DNa part of a river away from the main part, where the water does not move
Examples from the Corpus
backwater• Instead of being a backwater, they may in fact be an avant-garde.• Surely this was nothing but a backwater to civilization?• Overnight the bond market was transformed from a backwater into a casino.• The urban street and the rural village are both, in their different ways, educational backwaters.• It has been a forgotten backwater.• Once an obscure backwater of the publishing business, computer books have gone mainstream.• It is entirely possible that our backwater of a planet is literally the only one that has ever borne life.• a sleepy backwater town 