backwards

/ ˈbækwədz /

adverb

1. towards the rear
2. with the back foremost
3. in the reverse of usual order or direction
4. to or towards the past
5. into a worse state

   the patient was slipping backwards

6. towards the point of origin
7. bend over backwards informal.
   bend over backwardslean over backwardsfall over backwards to make a special effort, esp in order to please
8. know backwards informal.
   know backwards to understand completely

Example Sentences

The city is bending over backwards for restaurants, hair salons, barbershops – that they would consider putting another layer of red tape to re-open hotels is really unfair.

From Voice of San Diego

We should note that some political scientists argue that Gehl and Porter’s analysis of party power has it backwards.

From Freakonomics

It works great looking backwards, but going forwards it doesn’t work.

From Freakonomics

It’s also clear that this is not how the brain solves the learning problem, because it requires error signals to be sent backwards in both time and space across the synapses between neurons, which is clearly impossible.

From Singularity Hub 

It strikes me that you got that exactly backwards with your political career.

From Freakonomics

It seems backwards to applaud what is already necessary, what has already been clear for a long time.

From The Daily Beast

Much of the Internet still harbors very backwards views towards women.

From The Daily Beast

Since bandwidth has become reasonable, paying extra for it feels like a backwards move.

From The Daily Beast

In the search for an alternative, both writers looked not forward, but backwards.

From The Daily Beast

Speaking up about this backwards philosophy is actually how she got the gig.

From The Daily Beast

The series is so taught that it can be recited forwards‌ and backwards—the only true test of learning any series.

From Project Gutenberg

His imagination, wakened by Egypt, plunged backwards with a sense of strange familiarity.

From Project Gutenberg

He went backwards, sailing through the air, to land in the evergreen bed.

From Project Gutenberg

All belonged to the first days in Egypt before he noticed anything; the mind worked backwards to their gleaning.

From Project Gutenberg

The natural result was that the ʼrikisha man bolted and the ʼrikisha tilted backwards, to the discomfort of the fool riding in it.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• back
• backward