behindhand

comparative more behindhand · superlative most behindhand · alternative behind-hand

1. archaicLate, tardy, overdue, behind (in accomplishing a task, etc.).

   These days before the examinations began were very difficult for everybody, and Perrin began that hideous “getting behind-hand” that made things accumulate so that there seemed no chance of ever catching up.

   1911, Hugh Walpole, chapter 11, in Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill, London: Macmillan, published 1919, page 221

2. archaicNot at the expected point of completion.

   It was churning day, and there was baking to be done, and the mending was behindhand, and the children needed clothes […]

   1904, Edith Ferguson Black, chapter 8, in A Princess in Calico, Philadelphia: The Union Press, page 97

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   It was now the season for planting and sowing; many gardens and allotments of the villagers had already received their spring tillage; but the garden and the allotment of the Durbeyfields were behindhand.

   1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter 50, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles

3. archaicBehind (someone or something moving, a trend, etc.), lagging behind, not keeping up.

   I have constantly observed, that the generality of people are fifty years, at least, behind-hand in their politicks.

   1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, London: J. Dodsley, page 5

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   [The public] is so in awe of its own opinion, that it never dares to form any, but catches up the first idle rumour, lest it should be behind-hand in its judgment, and echoes it till it is deafened with the sound of its own voice.

   1821, William Hazlitt, “On living to one’s-self”, in Table-Talk, London: John Warren, page 227

   Not long after the start Mr Bhosh was chagrined to discover that he was all behindhand, and he almost despaired of overtaking any of his fore-runners.

   1902, F. Anstey, chapter 13, in A Bayard from Bengal, London: Methuen, pages 97–98

4. archaicBehind in paying a debt; in arrears.

   […] Frl. Mayr is behind-hand with the rent.

   1939, Christopher Isherwood, “A Berlin Diary”, in Goodbye to Berlin, London: Vintage, published 1998, page 18

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   Leo. ... theſe thy offices (So rarely kind) are as Interpreters Of my behind-hand ſlackneſſe.

   1623, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, Act V, Scene 1

   He’s sadly behindhand with his rent, as I was saying, but if he’s really ill, I must see after Sheepshanks, who is a hardish man of business.

   1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1866, →OCLC

5. archaicNot having enough of, lacking (in something).

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   1777, Samuel Johnson, Letter to James Boswell dated 25 November, 1777, cited in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, London: Charles Dilly, 1791, Volume 2, p. 178, […] I have had for some time a very difficult and laborious respiration, but I am better by purges, abstinence, and other methods. I am yet however much behind-hand in my health and rest.

6. datedInferior, less advanced (compared with someone in something).

   And so literary an imagination as Blunden’s was of course not behindhand in recalling and applying Morris.

   1975, Paul Fussell, chapter 4, in The Great War and Modern Memory, Oxford University Press, pages 136–137

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   […] I’ll shew you I scorn to be behind-hand in Civility with you; and as you are not angry for what I have said, so I am not angry for what you have said.

   1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 6, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XV, page 148

   He had enough of that faculty of small talk to be sufficiently eloquent upon insignificant topics; he could point a compliment, or envelope a double meaning with all the readiness of a practitioner in that commodious art, and indeed he was not behindhand with any man of modern honour in the true principles of the sect […]

   1795, Richard Cumberland, Henry, London: Charles Dilly, Volume 4, Book 11, Chapter 10, p. 184

   When Scrooge’s nephew laughed in this way—holding his sides, rolling his head, and twisting his face into the most extravagant contortions—Scrooge’s niece, by marriage, laughed as heartily as he. And their assembled friends, being not a bit behindhand, roared out lustily.

   1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 106

comparative more behindhand · superlative most behindhand · alternative behind-hand

1. archaicBelatedly, tardily.

   Synonyms: late

2. archaicIn debt, or in arrears.