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Crossword clues for backwards

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
backwards
adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a backwards glance
▪ He took a quick backwards glance at the house, and then continued walking.
a step backwards/a backward step (=an action that makes things worse)
▪ A rationing system would be a major step backwards.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
drag
▪ She was dragged backwards and sideways through hedges.
fall
▪ Poor Mr Macgregor turned up after having lain with a woman but almost immediately fell backwards downstairs.
▪ The pain was searing, so that I fell backwards, and though I struggled, I could not stand up again.
▪ Madame Arcati was springing on to tables, falling backwards off stools and dancing eccentric tangos.
▪ Fergus woke in utter darkness, wondering where he was; he felt as though he was falling backwards for ever into darkness.
▪ He fell backwards, already rolling as he struck the trampoline between the hulls.
▪ Need to recover from falling backwards. 3.
▪ As the Toyota moves forward they fall backwards.
▪ Now, in the television ads, he cheerfully delivered some hammy lines before falling backwards into a swimming pool.
go
▪ A miracle had happened, and time had gone backwards.
▪ Evolution had reached its peak and was going backwards.
▪ Peter: Why did you go backwards when I was coming to you?
▪ He was supposed to be the leader in this assignment, but how could a man lead going backwards?
▪ I felt when I came here that I was going backwards.
▪ Backwards Pretend you are a beginner who has inadvertently forgotten which end of the board is forwards and set sail going backwards.
▪ He made his way to bed, going backwards up the stairs, making use of his arms and one good leg.
▪ Blood jetted from his nostrils and Jimmy went backwards over a desk, taking a computer console with him.
lean
▪ Then she leant backwards so that her back was arched across my chest.
▪ In figure A the pelvis is pushed forward so that the man is leaning backwards.
▪ Are you leaning backwards or forwards?
look
▪ The point of an ending is for the conclusion to look backwards, not to carry the argument backwards.
Looking at snakes, we seem to be looking backwards in time and deep into our own primal selves.
▪ Where reductivism is forward-looking, retributivism looks backwards in time, to the offence.
▪ In this brief look backwards, history has an easy task.
▪ He looked backwards expecting to see the rear gunner running up the fuselage to report that his gun had jammed.
▪ There is a massive sub-culture there, looking backwards and it's getting more insidious all the time.
▪ By definition they do not look backwards at the kinds of demographic transformations with which various societies have already coped.
move
▪ At any time, we are either learning and developing or moving backwards.
▪ To get a good purchase, I knelt on the melamine top, moving backwards as I was cutting.
▪ The second assumption is that the stream can not move backwards on itself, that is, reverse its direction or join itself.
▪ When hovering, the same input will make the model start to move backwards.
▪ The locus of failure thereafter moves backwards into the cylinder.
▪ We can then move backwards or forwards in time.
▪ Their friend Otto Korn, the physicist, had shown that particles move backwards in time.
▪ Unless a company is progressing the whole time, it is, in fact, moving backwards.
rock
▪ Their bodies collided and, momentarily winded, she rocked backwards.
▪ Belinda stopped in front of them, still drinking her orange juice and rocking backwards and forwards on her heels.
run
▪ Some might argue that it was running backwards.
▪ The same device, run backwards, reacts hydrogen and oxygen together to make water and generate electrical power.
▪ And to cap it all off, when she was tied-up she couldn't run backwards, so she lay down instead!
▪ To solve this problem, the synapses are run backwards so you can tell how strongly that particular synapse is connected.
▪ It just seems to me that the film is running backwards.
▪ For a start, the clock runs backwards from 45 minutes to zero.
stagger
▪ A flailing chimera of camera crews, photographers and reporters staggers backwards down some city high street.
▪ Suddenly Dad uttered a sharp cry and staggered backwards, slumping against the wall.
▪ The captain staggered backwards, tripped over the dropped gun and fell on to the sidewalk.
▪ With a gasp Chantal staggered backwards, reaching for the chair back to steady herself.
▪ Her blow connected, and Ma Katz staggered backwards, blade scraping the flower-pattern wallpaper.
▪ The fist's owner became visible, staggering backwards, clutching the wounded article and uttering cuss words.
▪ Gunfire rattled against his pectoral shields, and he staggered backwards from the blast.
▪ The recoil was unexpected and he staggered backwards as Cardiff reached him, not knowing whether he had hit it or not.
step
▪ The figure stepped backwards into the darkness.
▪ Startled, Bunny stepped backwards, dragging Meredith with him.
▪ Oh, the disgusted look on women's faces as they step backwards through a doorway, out of the rain.
▪ Anne stepped backwards, the train rocking under her feet, making her unsteady.
▪ Time is like stepping backwards you said tonight, the future's always dark.
▪ To step backwards into the limbo of the last five years.
▪ We step backwards towards the car.
stumble
▪ She stumbled backwards and I darted out of the way as she fell over.
▪ The old man wobbled and stumbled backwards, wagging his head as if he were trying to shake something out of it.
▪ A cook from the kitchens took one in the eye and stumbled backwards with his hands pressed to his temples.
▪ Yukio's face erupting before her, stumbling backwards, a pressure on her elbow.
▪ The grass blades tore, but their initial resistance sent him stumbling backwards.
▪ In panic she stumbled backwards, twisted round and tried to run into the living room.
▪ He stumbled backwards and struck a bed screen that crashed to the floor, bringing him with it.
▪ As Seawitch rolled heavily Polly's foot slipped on the wet deck and she stumbled backwards, pulling Nathan with her.
topple
▪ She tried to blink the red mist from her eyes, failed, and toppled backwards out of the image field.
tumble
▪ They tumbled backwards together in a happy heap.
▪ Marcus was doubled over and I saw the woman tumbling backwards.
▪ Cora-Beth's foot had slipped between two of the bales and she had tumbled backwards, dragging Harry down on top of her.
walk
▪ Then he walked backwards, scraping the gravel with the side of his boot.
▪ An open-band smash that sent her walking backwards to the stove.
▪ There were girls who couldn't walk backwards.
▪ She made them walk backwards and forwards, and then trot.
▪ To wait for her would be like walking backwards.
▪ Why am I walking backwards into the house?
▪ He actually found it easier to walk backwards.
▪ Both victims then walk backwards into view.
work
▪ The presence of a particular motive can only be inferred by working backwards from the behaviour itself.
▪ You can then work backwards to positions that are not relevant.
▪ He had tried starting in the middle and working backwards.
▪ Instead, work backwards from the end of the field, using a minus sign.
▪ Recession, therefore, has the unfortunate and cumulative effect of working backwards.
▪ As before, the essential trick is working backwards and writing forwards.
▪ You can then treat the timber by spraying or brushing on two generous coats, working backwards towards the loft hatch.
▪ And, once again. you will see that you have had to work backwards.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
bend over backwards (to do sth)
▪ Outside the trees are bending over backwards to please the wind: the shining sword grass flattens on its belly.
▪ The authors, however, bend over backwards to avoid consideration of that particular class scenario.
▪ The Gallery is also bending over backwards to boost attendance, and in doing so is rather alarmingly bowing to populist pressures.
▪ They also needed to stop rationalizing the problem to themselves and bending over backwards to be fair.
▪ You should bend over backwards to avoid bitter personal rows and the holding of grudges.
look as if you've been dragged through a hedge backwards
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Can you say the alphabet backwards?
▪ Sarah fell backwards in the snow.
▪ She gently rocked the baby backwards and forwards.
▪ Stepping backwards, Harry trod on the foot of the woman behind him.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He was supposed to be the leader in this assignment, but how could a man lead going backwards?
▪ I felt when I came here that I was going backwards.
▪ In practice, the operator jumps forwards and backwards within the pattern indicated on the chart rechecking some decisions and anticipating others.
▪ Madame Arcati was springing on to tables, falling backwards off stools and dancing eccentric tangos.
▪ So I push him backwards into the mountain of stinking rubbish, and he sinks down on it.
▪ The wooden end caught Nogai in the face, and he pitched over backwards.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Backwards

Backward \Back"ward\, Backwards \Back"wards\, adv. [Back, adv. + -ward.]

  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.
    --Shak.

  4. Toward, or in, past time or events; ago.

    Some reigns backward.
    --Locke.

  5. By way of reflection; reflexively.
    --Sir J. Davies.

  6. From a better to a worse state, as from honor to shame, from religion to sin.

    The work went backward.
    --Dryden.

  7. 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
backwards

1510s, from backward with adverbial genitive. Figurative phrase bend over backwards is recorded from 1901.

Wiktionary
backwards

a. 1 oriented toward the back. 2 reversed. 3 (context derogatory English) behind current trends or technology. 4 clumsy, inept, or inefficient. adv. 1 Toward the back. 2 In the opposite direction to usual. 3 In a manner such that the back precedes the front.

WordNet
backwards
  1. 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, backward, rearward, rearwards] [ant: forward]

  2. 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: backward]

Wikipedia
Backwards (novel)

Backwards is the fourth Red Dwarf novel. It is set on the fictional backwards universe version of Earth.

The novel was written by Rob Grant on his own. It follows on directly from the second Grant Naylor novel, Better Than Life, ignoring Last Human (which was written by Doug Naylor). As well as continuing the general conceit from the episode Backwards, it contains minor elements from the episode Dimension Jump, and all of the plot from Gunmen of the Apocalypse.

An audiobook of Backwards was also produced, read by the author.

Backwards (Red Dwarf)

"Backwards" is the first episode of science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf Series III, and the thirteenth in the series run. It premiered on the British television channel BBC2 on 14 November 1989. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by Ed Bye, the episode has the crew travel to an alternate Earth where time runs backwards.

The episode marks the first appearance of Robert Llewellyn's Kryten, Hattie Hayridge's version of Holly, the new spaceship Starbug, better production values, and a change in direction of story themes that would cement the show's cult status. The story was later reformulated as a novel by the same name. The episode was re-mastered, along with the rest of the first three series, in 1998.

Backwards

Backward or Backwards is a relative direction.

Backwards may also refer to:

  • "Backwards" (Red Dwarf episode), episode of TV sitcom
    • Backwards (novel), a novel based on the episode
  • Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia, 1984 American TV programme
  • "Backwards" (Rascal Flatts song), country music song
  • "Backwards", a song by Apartment 26 from the Mission: Impossible II Soundtrack
  • Backmasking, a Satan Panic promoted by a number of Evangelists that involved reversing music to hear a hidden Satanic message

Usage examples of "backwards".

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.

I wish the Bluenoses would find as good an excuse in their rumps for running backwards as he has.

I went up the slope backwards till I hit the rim, and then I turned and ducked into the bresh and run.

By the Bullnose Morris was a nervous, pacing, slyly smoking policeman, a cigarette cupped between his fingers, the glowing tip facing backwards, as though this simple precaution might make his illicit action the less obvious.

Slowly, laboriously, she tipped the chiffonnier backwards and forwards--once, twice, thrice--satisfied, yet strangely troubled in her mind, for she now felt sure that the bag of which the disappearance had so surprised her was there, safely locked away by its owner.

The same afternoon I descried the venerable warrior approaching the house, with a slow, stately gait, ear-rings in ears, and spear in hand, with this highly ornamental pair of shoes suspended from his neck by a strip of bark, and swinging backwards and forwards on his capacious chest.

He grabbed Digits by the front of his shirt and pushed him hard backwards.

Danaet, the factor would lecture her about dallying with a dockhand until the waves ran backwards.

There were Etruscan counterparts to the Latin letters C, E, F, K, and L, but they all faced backwards on almost every known Etruscan writing .

Marianna moves a few steps backwards, but Fila must have relit the candle because the light returns flickering in the doorway.

His eyes opened wide with astonishment, he gave Sharpe a puzzled, almost reproachful look, then slowly toppled backwards into one of the foetid puddles.

A-cup nothing and look at himself in the mirror sideways, frontways, backwards, then tear it off and leave the stretched, dead little animal print on the bed for me to find.

I pointed my gun and fired back twice, and the Gater toppled backwards.

He rose in agony, tearing himself free of her hands, bent and stood her up backwards to him, supporting her under the breasts, his elbows keeping her arms elevated.

She knows what reality is and she hates it, and she sucks it into herself and spews it out backwards.