small of the back

Noun

small of the back

1. (anatomy) The relatively narrow, lumbar region of the back.

   Synonyms: low back, lower back, lumbar

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “McWatt”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 70:

     The plan was not feasible, for making a ninety-degree turn would have been impossible without nickel-alloy swivels inserted in the small of every man's back, and Lieutenant Scheisskopf was not sanguine at all about obtaining that many nickel-alloy swivels from Quartermaster or enlisting the co-operation of the surgeons at the hospital.

   • 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 9:

     He remembered the smell of her skin in the overheated darkness of a coffin near the port, her fingers locked across the small of his back.