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🪨 Filling material 🪨 To fill a hole 🗂️ To add missing data 👤 To fill a vacancy
to backfill

to backfill

1 5.8
To add missing data or records from the past
  • verb
  • /ˈbækˌfɪl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : completar
  • The team will backfill the database with the missing records from last year.

I don't need to redo the whole chain that can be backfilled as we go along.

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Examples

  • To improve the experience, we decided to backfill the gaps in the report with additional research findings.

  • Google is backfilling stats from the 18th through the 24th, and we estimate they should be complete for most FeedBurner users by the end of September 26th, US Eastern time.

    Blog text (20)

  • Now I'm just going to backfill the rest and it's going to be good.

  • I don't need to redo the whole chain that can be backfilled as we go along.

    Computerphile

  • Thanks to SB 199, school districts must use that money to backfill a reduction in state funding, and taxpayers in many districts can indeed expect property taxes to increase faster.

    Blog text (10)

  • "For the last thirty years," says Pampush, "we've overharvested wild salmon and kept pumping out hatchery products to backfill the declines."

    Academic text (1995)

  • After the project was completed, we needed to backfill the data that was overlooked during the initial phase.

Synonyms

to densify
vsto backfill
  • Specialized
7.5

To fill missing values so data becomes more complete

adds missing data or work more generally to fill past gaps

Antonyms

to ignore
∞ 1.0

Choose not to pay attention to someone or something

to omit
66 3.4

Leave out something, for example a name, on purpose or by accident

Surface Forms

backfill infinitive
backfilled past
backfilled past participle
backfilling present participle
backfills third person singular

Morphology

backfill = fill (semi-transparent) = back + fill

The verb extends the physical sense to abstract domains (retroactively supplying missing data), so the relation to the components is metaphorical rather than strictly literal. [Postprocessing: moved 'back' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

Backfill comes from the parts back ('behind' or 'again') and fill ('to make full'), so a helpful way to remember it is 'fill a gap left behind'. That is why to backfill data means to add missing records or entries that were left out.