Spin (usually of a moving ball) that retards or reverses the forward motion

Usage examples of backspin.

Stice stood in the middle of the baseline awaiting pace and was helpless when Hal shortened the stroke and dribbled it at an angle cross-court, barely clearing the net and distorted with backspin and falling into the half-meter of fair space the acuteness of the angle allowed.

An undercut, backspinning ball in Ping-Pong was a strange shot with special properties.

Only seldom does he surprise the Oberkassel or Derendorf Seniors with tricky backspins.

Schacht bloops each return up with severe backspin so the balls'll roll back to him and he can serve them back to his guy, also warming up.

He wound up as if for the hardest slam yet, then dinked the ball down just over the net with a heavy backspin that damped it almost to a standstill.

He wound up as if for the hardest slam yet, then dinked the ball down just over the net with a heavy backspin that damped it almost to a standstill.

When people witnessed his implausible wrist-dribble or his zero-gravity double-pump fadeaway jumper off a pick at the high post (a shot that often concluded with the metal-gripping drollery of backspin and dead-rimming), they knew they weren't seeing just another demonstration of giantism engaged in a parody of faunlike grace.

Eric watched in disbelief as one boy moonwalked backwards, flipped over into a handstand, then rolled to the concrete in a tight backspin.

Maybe in some crazy way Paul Dissat was a fun-house mirror image of me, a warped McGee with backspin, reverse English.