Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Background

Back′ground′ (·ground′), n. [Back, a. + ground.]

1. Ground in the rear or behind, or in the distance, as opposed to the foreground, or the ground in front.

2. (Paint.) The space which is behind and subordinate to a portrait or group of figures.

☞ The distance in a picture is usually divided into foreground, middle distance, and background. Fairholt.

3. Anything behind, serving as a foil; as, the statue had a background of red hangings.

4. A place in obscurity or retirement, or out of sight.

I fancy there was a background of grinding and waiting before Miss Torry could produce this highly finished . . . performance. Mrs. Alexander.

A husband somewhere in the background. Thackeray.

To place in the background, to make of little consequence.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.