RETROGRADE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Retrograde

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/rˈɛtrəgrˌeɪd/ Listen

verb

Retrograde v. i. (past & past part. retrograded; pres. part. retrograding)

To go in a retrograde direction; to move, or appear to move, backward, as a planet.

Hence, to decline from a better to a worse condition, as in morals or intelligence.

adjective

Retrograde adj.

(Astron.) Apparently moving backward, and contrary to the succession of the signs, that is, from east to west, as a planet. "And if he be in the west side in that condition, then is he retrograde."

Tending or moving backward; having a backward course; contrary; as, a retrograde motion; opposed to progressive. "Progressive and not retrograde." "It is most retrograde to our desire."

Declining from a better to a worse state; as, a retrograde people; retrograde ideas, morals, etc.

See images of 'Retrograde'

Etymology of 'Retrograde'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Retrograde" Quotes from Famous Books

... for the commoner, "the coffee house soon became the plaything of the leisure class; and when the club was evolved, the coffee house began to retrograde to the level of the tavern. And so the eighteenth century, which saw the coffee house at the height of its power and popularity, witnessed also its decline and fall. It is said there were as many clubs at the end of the century as there were coffee ...

— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers

... between the Crown and the provincial parlements turned, under other names and in other forms, upon this very issue of the unification of the law. The Crown was with the progressive party, but it lacked the strength and courage to set aside retrograde local sentiment as the Constituent Assembly was able ...

— Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 1 of 3) - Essay 1: Robespierre • John Morley

... the advance of glaciers, and very justly, since they are in constant onward motion, being kept within their limits only by a waste at their lower extremity proportionate to their advance. But in considering the past history of glaciers, we must think of their changes as retrograde, not progressive movements; since, if the glacial theory be true, a great mass of ice, of which the present glaciers are but the remnants, formerly spread over the whole Northern hemisphere, and has gradually disappeared, until now no traces of it are to be found, except in the Arctic regions ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 13, No. 76, February, 1864 • Various

... ecrivait donc d'une main assez ferme ces propres expressions. "Ma chere amie,—La bataille se decide il y a trois jours.—J'ai eu les deux jambes emportees d'un boulet de canon—ce coquin de Bonaparte est toujours hereux. On m'a fait l'amputation aussi bien que possible—l'armee a faite un mouvement retrograde, ce n'est pas par revers, mais par decousu et pour se rapprocher au General Blucher. Excuse mon griffonage. Je t'aime et t'embrasse de tout mon coeur. Je ...

— Travels in France during the years 1814-1815 • Archibald Alison

... among quite ordinary people, innocent of all unconventional views concerning it. The enormous majority of cases in real life are those of people in that position. Those who deliberately and conscientiously profess what are oddly called advanced views by those others who believe them to be retrograde, are often, and indeed mostly, the last people in the world to engage in unconventional adventures of any kind, not only because they have neither time nor disposition for them, but because the friction set up ...

— Overruled • George Bernard Shaw

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