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FORWARDS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Present simple (third person singular) of the verb forward
II. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
In a forward direction
Example:
they went slowly forward in the mud
Synonyms:
ahead; forrader; forward; forwards; onward; onwards
Classified under:
Sense 2
Meaning:
At or to or toward the front
Example:
she practiced sewing backward as well as frontward on her new sewing machine
Synonyms:
forrad; forrard; forward; forwards; frontward; frontwards
Classified under:
Domain usage:
accent; dialect; idiom (the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people)
Context examples:
Squire and Gray fired again and yet again; three men fell, one forwards into the enclosure, two back on the outside.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
While I was under these circumstances, two rats crept up the curtains, and ran smelling backwards and forwards on the bed.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
An international team of astronomers has found that one of the stars in NGC 3201 is behaving very oddly — it is being flung backwards and forwards at speeds of several hundred thousand kilometres per hour, with the pattern repeating every 167 days.
(Odd Behaviour of Star Reveals Lonely Black Hole Hiding in Giant Star Cluster, ESO)
The gallery was terminated by folding doors, which Miss Tilney, advancing, had thrown open, and passed through, and seemed on the point of doing the same by the first door to the left, in another long reach of gallery, when the general, coming forwards, called her hastily, and, as Catherine thought, rather angrily back, demanding whether she were going?
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
The room they were taken into was the one he chiefly occupied, and looking forwards; behind it was another with which it immediately communicated; the door between them was open, and Emma passed into it with the housekeeper to receive her assistance in the most comfortable manner.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
She sometimes endeavoured for a few minutes to read; but the book was soon thrown aside, and she returned to the more interesting employment of walking backwards and forwards across the room, pausing for a moment whenever she came to the window, in hopes of distinguishing the long-expected rap.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Her mother stepped forwards, embraced her, and welcomed her with rapture; gave her hand, with an affectionate smile, to Wickham, who followed his lady; and wished them both joy with an alacrity which shewed no doubt of their happiness.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
The carriage was ready: they were bringing it round to the front, and my master was pacing the pavement, Pilot following him backwards and forwards.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
They caught the man by his leg and arm, and swung him three times backwards and forwards with tremendous violence.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Meanwhile, in the broad and lofty chamber set apart for occasions of import, the Abbot himself was pacing impatiently backwards and forwards, with his long white nervous hands clasped in front of him.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
