Definition of "behind"

But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. […] The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window […], and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them.

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […]

Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.

2013 July 19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 18

Bud Light replaces Marketing VP behind Dylan Mulvaney partnership.

2023, Ian Miller, OutKick‎

He was like, 'Fuck the police! Fuck you! You know who I am, you gonna quit playing with me, bitch.' I'm like let's go. 'Cause I wasn't trying to go to jail behind that shit.

2012, DeShawn Dorsey, Longsuffering Through Emotional Wounds, page 40

I shall not lag behind.

1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, / Leave not a rack behind.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene i]

[…] forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Philippians 3:13

‘After the performance was over I went behind, and spoke to her.’

1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Vintage, published 2007, page 68

We cannot be sure that there is no evidence behind.

1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 4, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], book I, page 16

"So the catheter didn't have anything to do with keeping him from touching himself?" I don't usually go in for euphemisms, but Fineg is a man who says "behind", as in "I have a picture where he bit me in the behind." The catheter, it turns out, was in the chimp's femoral artery (to monitor blood pressure), not his urethra.

2010, Mary Roach, “One Furry Step for Mankind: The Strange Careers of Ham and Enos”, in Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, W. W. Norton & Company, page 158

"The dog got excited, was jumping around inside the boat and then it jumped on the gun. It went off, shooting the [decoy setter] in the buttocks," Box Elder County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Kevin Potter told the Salt Lake Tribune. Twenty-seven rounds of birdshot were removed from the man's behind after the accident.

2011 December 12, Alyssa Newcomb, “Sit, Stay, Aim, Fire. Dog Shoots Another Hunter”, in ABC News‎, archived from the original on 25 October 2021

A roar from ten thousand throats go up,For we've kicked another behind.

1880, “The Opening Ball”, in G. Lehmann, editor, Comic Australian Verse, 1975, quoted in G. A. Wilkes, A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms, second edition, Sydney University Press, published 1985