backward

From Middle English bakwarde, abakward, equivalent to back (adverb) +‎ -ward.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbæk.wə(ɹ)d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbækwɚd/

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backward (comparative more backward, superlative most backward)

1. (of motion) In the direction towards the back.

   They left without a backward glance.

2. (of motion) In the direction reverse of normal.

   The occasional backward movement of planets is evidence they revolve around the sun.

3. Reluctant or unable to advance.
   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 51

     Then her eyes, always alert for the affairs of her kitchen, fell on some action of the Chinese cook which aroused her violent disapproval. She turned on him with a torrent of abuse. The Chink was not backward to defend himself, and a very lively quarrel ensued.

   • Don't be backward in suggesting story ideas to local media but always think of the wants, needs and desires of their readers when selling-in story ideas.
4. Of a culture: undeveloped or unsophisticated.
   • Most cruelly, the immediate security interests of the United States and the states surrounding Somalia are now to keep it a failed state, to prevent Islamists from consolidating even a weak state centered on Mogadishu. The leader of the victorious faction, one Aden Hashi 'Ayro, is said to be a veteran of Afghanistan; he knows well what a small sanctuary in a backward corner of the globe can mean for al Qaeda.
5. Of a thought or value: outdated.
   • Replace the morbid, bankrupting, backward idea of superpower domination: Weapons dismantled. Global warming reversed. Perhaps, in time, overpopulation, poverty, starvation, ignorance and disease all resolved. Thus, moral determination combined with 21st Century science, ecology and social initiatives will make possible a resonant fulfillment of our American Revolution
6. (cricket) On that part of the field behind the batsman's popping crease.
7. (cricket) Further behind the batsman's popping crease than something else.
8. (obsolete) Unwilling; averse; reluctant.
   • Alexander Pope

     For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves.

9. Slow to apprehend; having difficulties in learning.

   a backward child

10. Late or behindhand.

    a backward season

    • 1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton

      " […] I've a job of work to finish tonight; mourning, as must be in time for the funeral to-morrow; and grandfather has been out moss- hunting, and will not be home till late."
      "Oh, how charming it will be! I'll help you if you're backward. Have you much to do?"

11. (obsolete) Already past or gone; bygone.
    • Byron

      and flies unconscious o'er each backward year

• (in reverse direction): retrograde
• (of an undeveloped culture): third world
• (lagging behind in culture, technology, fashion): backwards, fogyish, old-fashioned, antiquated, antediluvian, unprogressive, retrograde, outdated, parachronistic, out of date

• (of an undeveloped culture): forward
• (of an outdated thought): progressive

• backwardation
• backwardly
• backwardness

backward (comparative more backward, superlative most backward)

1. (of motion) In the direction towards the back; backwards

   to walk or ride backward; to throw the arms backward

2. Toward, or in, past time or events; ago.
   • John Locke

     some reigns backward

3. By way of reflection; reflexively.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir J. Davies to this entry?)

4. From a better to a worse state, as from honor to shame, from religion to sin.
   • Dryden

     The work went backward.

• backwards

• forward, forwards

backward

1. The state behind or past.
   • Shakespeare

     In the dark backward and abysm of time.

• backwards

• draw back, drawback