If you refer to a place or institution as a backwater, you think it is not developing properly because it is isolated from ideas and events in other places and institutions.
例句
Britain could become a political backwater with no serious influence in the world...英国有变成在世界上没有真正影响力的政治死水之虞。This agency will be relegated to the backwaters of Washington...这个机构将沦落为华盛顿闭塞落后之地。
英英词典释义
Noun
1. a body of water that was created by a flood or tide or by being held or forced back by a dam;
"the bayous and backwaters are breeding grounds for mosquitos"
2. any backward region that is isolated from the world and resists progress