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brokeback

English

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brokeback¹

Where it comes from

From break + back; first used for "hunchback" in Carson McCullers' 1943 novella The Ballad of the Sad Café.

adjective

  1. not comparable, rare Hunchbacked. Damn those brokeback tramps making a mess of our city.
  2. not comparable, rare Broken; derelict. The brokeback bridges in the hills sadden me: this place used to be beautiful.

brokeback²

Where it comes from

From the title of Annie Proulx's 1997 short story "Brokeback Mountain"; popularised by the 2005 film of the same name.

adjective Brokeback

  1. neologism, not comparable, slang Homoerotic; homosexual, gay. I don't really think Frodo and Sam were gay, even if a couple of the scenes seemed a little brokeback to me.

Brokeback³

adjective

  1. alternative, not comparable Alternative spelling of brokeback in the homosexual sense

Translations

Every language

adj (slang) homoerotic — see also homoerotic

中文斷背 /断背 duànbèi
Portuguêsbicha, gay

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Cite this
MLA

"brokeback." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/brokeback. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

brokeback. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/brokeback

Chicago

"brokeback." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/brokeback.

BibTeX
@misc{brokeback_2026,
  title = {brokeback},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/brokeback},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}