backscratcher
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Noun: 1. A long-handled device used to scratch one's own back: A tool, typically with a handle and a scratching end (often shaped like a hand or a rake), designed to reach and relieve itches on one's back. 2. A person who exchanges favors or services for mutual benefit: Someone willing to engage in reciprocal favor-trading, often implying a pragmatic or self-serving arrangement where each person "scratches the other's back."
Usage and Examples
- Literal Tool:
- After the hike, he used a backscratcher to reach an itchy spot between his shoulder blades.
- The bamboo backscratcher was a popular souvenir from the market.
- Figurative Person (Reciprocal Favor-Trader):
- In politics, he was known as a backscratcher, always ready to vote for a colleague's bill in exchange for future support.
- The system was run by backscratchers who exchanged promotions for personal loyalty.
Advanced Usage
- The term is often used in informal or slightly critical contexts to describe networks of mutual aid that may bypass formal rules or ethics.
- The concept is central to the idiom "You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours," which describes the principle of reciprocal favor exchange.
Variants and Related Words
- Backscratching (noun): The act or practice of exchanging favors.
- The contract was awarded through political backscratching, not a fair bidding process.
Synonyms
- For the tool: Scratcher, back scratcher.
- For the person: Favor-trader, reciprocal ally, quid pro quo partner.
Related Idioms
- "You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours": A proverb meaning if you do a favor for me, I will do one for you in return; mutual cooperation for mutual benefit.
- I'll help you move this weekend if you help me paint next month. You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours.
Noun
- a long-handled scratcher for scratching your back
- someone who is willing to trade favors or services for mutual advantage