Retrograde
['retrəgreɪd] or ['rɛtrəɡred]
Definition
(verb.) go back over; 'retrograde arguments'.
(verb.) move back; 'The glacier retrogrades'.
(verb.) move in a direction contrary to the usual one; 'retrograding planets'.
(verb.) move backward in an orbit, of celestial bodies.
(adj.) of amnesia; affecting time immediately preceding trauma .
(adj.) moving from east to west on the celestial sphere; or--for planets--around the sun in a direction opposite to that of the Earth .
(adj.) going from better to worse .
Edited by Bertram--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Apparently moving backward, and contrary to the succession of the signs, that is, from east to west, as a planet.
(a.) Tending or moving backward; having a backward course; contrary; as, a retrograde motion; -- opposed to progressive.
(a.) Declining from a better to a worse state; as, a retrograde people; retrograde ideas, morals, etc.
(v. i.) To go in a retrograde direction; to move, or appear to move, backward, as a planet.
(v. i.) Hence, to decline from a better to a worse condition, as in morals or intelligence.
Typed by Helga
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Backward.
v. n. Retrocede, recede, retire, go or move backward, retrace one's steps.
Checker: Trent
Definition
adj. going backward: falling from better to worse: contrary: (biol.) becoming less highly organised as 'a retrograde theory:' swimming backwards as many animals: (astron.) moving westwards relatively to the fixed stars.—v.i. to go backwards.—ns. Retrogradā′tion deterioration; Rē′trogress falling off; Rētrogres′sion a going backward: a decline in quality or merit.—adjs. Rētrogres′sional Rētrogress′ive.—adv. Rētrogress′ively.—n. Rētrogress′iveness.
Editor: Winthrop
Examples
- I accordingly assembled my troop, and proposed to them this retrograde movement, instead of the continuation of our journey to Auxerre. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- The fraction drum of the indicator could be driven in either direction, known as the advance and retrograde movements, and was divided and marked in eighths. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- During the night, General Banks continued his retrograde movement to Grand Ecore, and thence to Alexandria, which he reached on the 27th of April. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- But the retrograde movement towards the gate had begun--as unreasoningly, perhaps as blindly, as the simultaneous anger. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- To the credit of the machine, it should be said, that it was from no fault in the machine that this retrograde step was taken, but rather the disfavor of the labor organizations. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- We sent half our attendant troop on to Adrian; and with the other half our carriage took a retrograde course back to Windsor. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
Edited by Gene