| Library / English Dictionary |
BACKWARD
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Directed or facing toward the back or rear
Example:
a backward view
Classified under:
Similar:
returning; reversive (tending to be turned back)
retroflex; retroflexed (bent or curved backward)
retral; retrograde (moving or directed or tending in a backward direction or contrary to a previous direction)
retracted (drawn back and in)
regardant (looking backward)
reflexive; self-referent (referring back to itself)
receding ((of a hairline e.g.) moving slowly back)
rearward; reverse (directed or moving toward the rear)
inverse; reverse (reversed (turned backward) in order or nature or effect)
converse; reversed; transposed (turned about in order or relation)
cacuminal; retroflex (pronounced with the tip of the tongue turned back toward the hard palate)
backswept; sweptback (used of hair)
Also:
regressive (opposing progress; returning to a former less advanced state)
retrospective (concerned with or related to the past)
Antonym:
forward (at or near or directed toward the front)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(used of temperament or behavior) marked by a retiring nature
Example:
a backward lover
Classified under:
Similar:
bashful; blate (disposed to avoid notice)
Also:
timid (showing fear and lack of confidence)
Antonym:
forward (used of temperament or behavior; lacking restraint or modesty)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Having made less than normal progress
Example:
an economically backward country
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
adynamic; undynamic (characterized by an absence of force or forcefulness)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Retarded in intellectual development
Synonyms:
backward; feebleminded; half-witted; slow-witted
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
retarded (relatively slow in mental or emotional or physical development)
Domain usage:
archaicism; archaism (the use of an archaic expression)
Derivation:
backwardness (lack of normal development of intellectual capacities)
II. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
In or to or toward a past time
Example:
lovers of the past looking fondly backward
Synonyms:
back; backward
Classified under:
Antonym:
forward (toward the future; forward in time)
Sense 2
Meaning:
At or to or toward the back or rear
Example:
she looked rearward out the window of the car
Synonyms:
back; backward; backwards; rearward; rearwards
Classified under:
Antonym:
forward (at or to or toward the front)
Sense 3
Meaning:
In a manner or order or direction the reverse of normal
Example:
the child put her jersey on backward
Synonyms:
backward; backwards
Classified under:
Adverbs
Context examples:
The backward flow of stomach acid contents into the esophagus (the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach).
(Esophageal reflux, NCI Dictionary)
He waited in vain for some backward glance or sign of relenting, but she walked on with a rigid neck until her dress was only a white flutter among the leaves.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
We will start now, not from the lady but from the coffin and argue backward.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Then, as Wilson took a backward step to induce Harrison to break his ground and follow him, the older man grinned and shook his head.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He told me “yes” by a constrained gesture; and when I had bidden him enter, he did not obey me without a searching backward glance into the darkness of the square.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
A horizontal groove on the surface of the parietal lobe extending backward from the postcentral sulcus forming the ascending, superior and inferior parietal convolutions.
(Intraparietal Sulcus, NCI Thesaurus)
Normally, these valves open to let blood flow through or out of your heart, and then shut to keep it from flowing backward.
(Heart Valve Diseases, NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)
The anterior portion of the corpus callosum that bends downward and backward.
(Genu of the Corpus Callosum, NCI Thesaurus)
In dislocation, or complete rupture, the lens is displaced forward into the anterior chamber or backward into the vitreous body.
(Lens Subluxation, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
Positioned with the patient leaning backward.
(Lordotic Position, NCI Thesaurus)
