go backwards

verb

To decline or deteriorate; to get worse.

First used 16th c.
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Meanings

verbgo backwards (third-person singular simple present goes backwards, present participle going backwards, simple past went backwards, past participle gone backwards)

present singular third person goes backwards · participle present going backwards · past went backwards · participle past gone backwards

  1. To decline or deteriorate; to get worse.First known use 16th c.
  2. obsoleteslangTo defecate; to visit the privy.

    [O]ne day he expressed his desire of going backwards with such natural imitation of his purpose, that every body in the room firmly believed he had actually overshot himself, and fortified their nostrils accordingly.

    1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC
Cite this entry
APA

go backwards. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/go%20backwards

MLA

“go backwards.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/go%20backwards. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “go backwards,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/go%20backwards.

Source: go backwards on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.