Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To mark or supply with a date that is earlier than the actual date.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb to make effective from an earlier date; to make retroactive.
  • transitive verb to affix a date earlier than the present date; -- sometimes done for fraudulent purposes. Opposite of postdate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To give or assign a date to a document that is earlier than the current date.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make effective from an earlier date

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

back + date

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Examples

  • The backdating companies broke this rule: they reported how many options they were issuing, but conveniently omitted the fact that they had been backdated … The bigger reason for choosing to backdate is to get around some bothersome accounting regulations.

    Backdating Options, APB 25, and FAS 123 2006

  • The backdating companies broke this rule: they reported how many options they were issuing, but conveniently omitted the fact that they had been backdated … The bigger reason for choosing to backdate is to get around some bothersome accounting regulations.

    Backdating Options, APB 25, and FAS 123 2006

  • By asking to "backdate" gains more than a year in the past, the lawsuit said, Mr. Picower and others at his firm "knew or should have known that they were participating in fraudulent activity."

    Picowers Rebut Suit Tied to Madoff Fraud 2009

  • By asking to "backdate" gains more than a year in the past, the lawsuit says, Mr. Picower and others at his firm "knew or should have known that they were participating in fraudulent activity."

    Foundation That Is Tied to Madoff Faces Suit 2009

  • These sources also tell FITS that S.C. Ethics Commission Attorney Cathy Hazelwood may have permitted Miles to "backdate" one of his forms, or affix a prior date so as to make it appear that the document had been filed in a timely fashion.

    FITSNews 2009

  • South Carolina's State Ethics Commission has assessed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of late fees - much of it to black candidates in low income areas of the state - but it may have let a white state agency head "backdate" his paperwork in order to avoid having to pay these same charges.

    FITSNews 2009

  • Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn had alleged that Comverse Chief Executive Jacob "Kobi" Alexander and others engaged in a scheme to backdate millions of stock options and to secretly award backdated options to favored employees through a "slush fund."

    Ex-Comverse Finance Chief Sentenced to Time Served Chad Bray 2011

  • If companies backdate options without properly disclosing and accounting for the move, it can cause profits to be overstated.

    Bob Iger Named Director Of Apple, Arthur Levinson Named Chairman Of The Board 2011

  • If Bay is not ready to start the season, the Mets can backdate his DL stint to March 25, meaning he would be eligible to return April 9 against Washington.

    Mets' Bay Could Be Headed to the DL Brian Costa 2011

  • Late last week, in an interview with the Florida attorney general, a former senior paralegal in Stern's firm described a boiler-room atmosphere in which employees were pressured to forge signatures, backdate documents, swap Social Security numbers, inflate billings and pass around notary stamps as if they were salt.

    Banks' Foreclosure 'Robo-Signers' Were Hair Stylists, Teens, Walmart Workers: Lawsuit The Huffington Post News Team 2010

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