BACKWARD • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Backward

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/bˈækwərd/ Listen

adjective

Backward adj.

1.

Directed to the back or rear; as, backward glances.

2.

Unwilling; averse; reluctant; hesitating; loath. "For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves."

3.

Not well advanced in learning; not quick of apprehension; dull; inapt; as, a backward child. "The backward learner."

4.

Late or behindhand; as, a backward season.

5.

Not advanced in civilization; undeveloped; as, the country or region is in a backward state.

6.

Already past or gone; bygone. (R.) "And flies unconscious o'er each backward year."

adverb

Backwards, Backward adv.

1.

With the back in advance or foremost; as, to ride backward.

2.

Toward the back; toward the rear; as, to throw the arms backward.

3.

On the back, or with the back downward. "Thou wilt fall backward."

4.

Toward, or in, past time or events; ago. "Some reigns backward."

5.

By way of reflection; reflexively.

6.

From a better to a worse state, as from honor to shame, from religion to sin. "The work went backward."

7.

In a contrary or reverse manner, way, or direction; contrarily; as, to read backwards. "We might have... beat them backward home."

noun

Backward n. The state behind or past. (Obs.) "In the dark backward and abysm of time."

verb

Backward v. t. To keep back; to hinder. (Obs.)

See images of 'Backward'

Etymology of 'Backward'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Backward" Quotes from Famous Books

... She was turning backward, for the benefit of onlookers who pressed close to the glass, the leaves of a mammoth pad resting ...

— The Sturdy Oak - A Composite Novel of American Politics by Fourteen American Authors • Samuel Merwin, et al.

... looking for that place. Nearer and nearer to the shore he steered. At last he was quite close to it. He glanced quickly round. His bow and arrows lay beside him. He bent and seized them. Then with one great leap he sprang ashore, and as he leaped he gave the boat a backward push with his foot, sending it out again into the stormy ...

— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2 (of 12) • Various

... began, with a backward glance at the horse ambling along peacefully in the dust, "thot caballo he's strong lak a ox. He's makin' a fine horse—a fine horse—in thees wagon! He's—" He suddenly interrupted himself. "Franke," he offered, generously, ...

— Bred of the Desert - A Horse and a Romance • Marcus Horton

... stumps; And children ran, with little twigs and leaves And flung them, shouting, on the forest pyres, Where burn'd the forest kings—and in the glow Paus'd men and women when the day was done. There the lean weaver ground anew his axe, Nor backward look'd upon the vanish'd loom, But forward to the ploughing of his fields; And to the rose of Plenty in the cheeks. Of wife and children—nor heeded much the pangs Of the rous'd muscles tuning to ...

— Old Spookses' Pass • Isabella Valancy Crawford

... described by Lumholtz: "A big fire of corn-cobs, or of the branches of the mountain-cedar, is made near the cross [outside the house], and the baby is carried over the smoke three times towards each cardinal-point, and also three times backward. The motion is first toward the east, then toward the west, then south, then north. The smoke of the corn-cobs assures him of success in agriculture. With a fire-brand the medicine-man makes three crosses on the child's forehead, if it is a boy, and ...

— The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought • Alexander F. Chamberlain

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