wetback


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wet·back

 (wĕt′băk′)
n. Offensive Slang
Used as a disparaging term for a person of Mexican birth or descent, especially one who has crossed the US-Mexico border illegally.

[From the fact that the Rio Grande is a common entry point.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

wetback

(ˈwɛtˌbæk)
n
(Peoples) informal offensive US a Mexican labourer who enters the US illegally
[C20: illegal immigrants would swim across the Rio Grande river to reach the US]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

wet•back

(ˈwɛtˌbæk)

n.
usage: This term is used with disparaging intent and is perceived as insulting.
n.
Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. (a contemptuous term used to refer to a Mexican laborer who enters the U.S. illegally.)
[1925–30, Amer.; alluding to the practice of swimming or wading the Rio Grande to enter the U.S.]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.wetback - (ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Mexican descent
derogation, disparagement, depreciation - a communication that belittles somebody or something
ethnic slur - a slur on someone's race or language
Mexican - a native or inhabitant of Mexico
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations

wetback

[ˈwetbæk] N (US) → inmigrante mf (mejicano) ilegal, espalda mf mojada
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

wetback

[ˈwɛtbæk] n (US)dos m mouilléwet blanket n (= person) → rabat-joie mf invwet dream npollution f nocturne
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
References in periodicals archive ?
businesses, operates a drug business, and shops at Neiman-Marcus, Saks, and Cartier in Houston; the American businessman who uses him as a front; the Mexican student who crosses the border to study; the Mexican chef who tries to educate the American palate; the maquiladora; the wetback and the maid; the jailbird and the meat packer; the window washer who flies weekly from Mexico to New York; the Chicano intellectual; the smug, racist gringo; the border patrol.
Rosenthal invoked Texas' dark, discriminatory legacy against voters of color - poll taxes, all-white primaries, eliminating interpreters at the polls - and outlined how it has endured through modern day-elections in a town where voters told a Hispanic candidate campaigning for a council seat that they "weren't going to vote for a wetback."
The deportation operation that Trump is referring to is "Operation Wetback," which sent undocumented immigrants to Mexico on cargo boats, leaving them in obscure locations.
On the field of liquid-strike-through-time testing and rewet testing, Lenzing Instruments has been standard setting with its two instruments Lister and Wetback. Often used in combination, the operator tests the liquid-strike-throughtime of a nonwoven coverstock with Lister according to WSP 70.3/WSP 70.7, and the wetback properties of the same nonwoven coverstock with Wetback according to WSP 80.10 / WSP 70.8.
In the recorded argument with ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, Gibson is reportedly heard referring to one of his staff members as a "wetback," a racial slur used against people of Latino heritage, reports the New York Daily News.
In the same 25 year period Byworth has grown dramatically and has developed a comprehensive range of steam and hot water boilers ranging from the compact and affordable MX range (up to 5000 Kgs/hr), ideal for small to medium sized users of process steam, to the larger (up to 15,900 Kgs/hr) traditional three pass wetback design of the Yorkshireman range which is more suited for a continual heavy workload.
And not many years later we had Operation Wetback, where Mexican-looking people were rounded up and sent to Mexico, regardless of their status.
Engrossing Canadian-produced docu "Wetback" hits the ground running alongside migrants fleeing poverty in Central America for the (North) "American Dream"; pic points out that only about 300 of the estimated 3,000 who leave every day will actually make it to their destination.
Soon the Chicano campesino realizes that this Farm worker from Vietnam never ever called him a wetback or a greaser.
Friendship with the immigrants and undocumented workers whom the Houston Catholic Worker assists changed his worldview for the better, he said, mentioning how jarring it is for him today to hear "wetback" jokes that are common in Houston.
To this loteria pantheon he adds the border patrol (La migra), the "wetback" (El mojado), and bad government (El mal gobierno), thus underscoring his satiric vision.
"I always tell people that I am a wetback, not from swimming the river but because I was wet with sweat."