Crossword clues for backward
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Backward \Back"ward\, a.
Directed to the back or rear; as, backward glances.
-
Unwilling; averse; reluctant; hesitating; loath.
For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves.
--Pope. Not well advanced in learning; not quick of apprehension; dull; inapt; as, a backward child. ``The backward learner.''
--South.Late or behindhand; as, a backward season.
Not advanced in civilization; undeveloped; as, the country or region is in a backward state.
-
Already past or gone; bygone. [R.]
And flies unconscious o'er each backward year.
--Byron.
Backward \Back"ward\, n. The state behind or past. [Obs.]
In the dark backward and abysm of time.
--Shak.
Backward \Back"ward\, v. t. To keep back; to hinder. [Obs.]
Backward \Back"ward\, Backwards \Back"wards\, adv. [Back, adv. + -ward.]
With the back in advance or foremost; as, to ride backward.
Toward the back; toward the rear; as, to throw the arms backward.
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On the back, or with the back downward.
Thou wilt fall backward.
--Shak. -
Toward, or in, past time or events; ago.
Some reigns backward.
--Locke. By way of reflection; reflexively.
--Sir J. Davies.-
From a better to a worse state, as from honor to shame, from religion to sin.
The work went backward.
--Dryden. -
In a contrary or reverse manner, way, or direction; contrarily; as, to read backwards.
We might have . . . beat them backward home.
--Shak.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1300, from abakward, from Old English on bæc (see back (adv.)) + -weard adjectival and adverbial suffix (see -ward). Old English had the adverb bæcling. As an adjective, from 1550s. Meaning "behindhand with regard to progress" is first attested 1690s. To ring bells backward (from lowest to highest), c.1500, was a signal of alarm for fire or invasion, or to express dismay. Another Middle English word for "backward, wrongly" was arseward (c.1400); Old English had earsling.
Wiktionary
a. 1 (context of motion English) Pertaining to the direction towards the back. 2 (context of motion English) Pertaining to the direction reverse of normal. 3 reluctant or unable to advance. 4 Of a culture considered undeveloped or unsophisticated. 5 Pertaining to a thought or value that is considered outdated. 6 (context cricket English) On that part of the field behind the batsman's popping crease. 7 (context cricket English) further behind the batsman's popping crease than something else. 8 (context obsolete English) Unwilling; averse; reluctant. 9 Slow to apprehend; having difficulties in learning. 10 Late or behindhand. 11 (context obsolete English) Already past or gone; bygone. adv. 1 (context of motion English) In the direction towards the back; backwards 2 Toward, or in, past time or events; ago. 3 By way of reflection; reflexively. 4 From a better to a worse state, as from honor to shame, from religion to sin. n. The state behind or past.
WordNet
adj. directed or facing toward the back or rear; "a backward view" [ant: forward]
(used of temperament or behavior) marked by a retiring nature; "a backward lover" [ant: forward]
retarded in intellectual development [syn: feebleminded]
adv. at or to or toward the back or rear; "he moved back"; "tripped when he stepped backward"; "she looked rearward out the window of the car" [syn: back, backwards, rearward, rearwards] [ant: forward]
in a manner or order or direction the reverse of normal; "it's easy to get the `i' and the `e' backward in words like `seize' and `siege'"; "the child put her jersey on backward" [syn: backwards]
in or to or toward a past time; "set the clocks back an hour"; "never look back"; "lovers of the past looking fondly backward" [syn: back] [ant: ahead, ahead]
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "backward".
Clem gaffed it, pulled it close, grabbed ahold of the pot-warp with both hands, gave a good yank, and fell over backward.
I hit the carpeted aisleway, I grabbed him, and jumped to the pit, appearing in midair, but tumbling backward, unsettling for me, terrifying for Green-bag, who found himself facedown fifty feet in the air.
I spared but a single glance backward toward the place Nefar had been before I once again felt something crumbling with the breeze beneath my feet and I ran, I leapt, I threw myself with Akan toward the cliff we had abandoned.
The other warrior kept running headlong, fleeing without a backward glance, and Nom Anor soon discovered what the warrior fled from: a limping, snarling, shouting mob, bearing a variety of improvised weapons, from spade rays to malledillos to writhing wild amphistaffs as much a danger to their wielder as to an enemy, which descended upon the hamstrung warrior to beat and chop him to death with savage triumph.
This could easily be the Nung Yahtsu, but things were backward, the bulkheads were too dark, and the deck plate covering was a tile, not rubber with antiskid bumps.
Entering his room after vain knocking, he found him stretched asprawl on the stone floor, as if he had been hurled backward by a heavy blow.
Ronald said, as he looked at the prince as he was pacing up and down the deck with the Duke of Athole, talking rapidly, his face flushed with enthusiasm, his clustering hair blown backward by the wind.
The axman tried to get out of her way, stumbled backward and fell, and she surged forward to trample him.
The dance ended in a vigorous whirling during which the partners only touched with their hands and the tips of their feet and then, leaning far over backwards, turned in a bacchantic circle.
Just as they thought she was going to do a backbend, she simply rolled her torso backward and then up again.
The dinosaur-hide armor protected Balt from the blade, but not the push backward.
He was also conscious that rank gave him the freedom to leave the battle line, except that the responsibility of command perversely decreed that he could not take that voluntary backward step.
With her hands batting at the creatures, Betta fell backward out of the tent, coated with the scrabbling bodies of the poisonous beasts.
I winced when he hit the sterile field, and the resulting bioelectrical charge sent him staggering backward.
I wish the Bluenoses would find as good an excuse in their rumps for running backwards as he has.