retrograde

comparative more retrograde · superlative most retrograde

1. Directed or moving backwards in relation to the normal or previous direction of travel; retreating.
2. Reverting to an inferior or less developed state; declining, regressing.
   1. biologyOf an animal: appearing to regress to a less developed form during its lifetime.
3. Of the order of something: inverse, reverse.
   1. entertainmentHaving a passage of music played backwards.
4. Of ideas or a person: opposing social reform, favouring the maintenance of the status quo; conservative.

   retrograde ideas, morals, etc.

   2 more examples

   Such retrograde people still exist, resisting modernity, dragging their feet.

   1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 74

   […] in the form of the pussyfooted Alexis Smith. While referring to [Cole] Porter's 1946 film (alleged) biography, Night and Day, she mentions there were "certain aspects of the story which at that time they could not do." Was "certain aspects" a euphemism for gay? Smith's misplaced politeness here is truly retrograde.

   1991 December 1, Rudy Grillo, “Who's The Top?”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 20, page 8

   Synonyms: reactionary, traditionalist, backward · Antonyms: liberal, progressist, reformist

5. archaicInvolving a return to or a retracing of a previous course of travel.
6. archaicCounterproductive to a desired outcome; contradictory, contrary.

   In going back to school in Wittenberg, / It is most retrograde to our desire: / And we beseech you, bend you to remain

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

7. astronomyOf a celestial body orbiting another: in the opposite direction to the orbited body's spin.

   Antonyms: direct, prograde

8. alsooftenpostpositionalastrologyOf a celestial body: seeming to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement.

   Mercury retrograde

   1 more example

   The inauspicious connotations of Mercury retrograde are actually quite old, evidenced in an ancient branch of astrology known as horary astrology.

   2018 March 22, Wilder Davies, “Mercury Is Entering Retrograde Again. This Is Why So Many People Care”, in Time, archived from the original on 09 Dec 2023

9. geographyOf a metamorphic change: resulting from a decrease in pressure or temperature.

   Antonyms: prograde

10. medicineOf amnesia: relating to the period leading up to the episode which caused it.
11. archaiccommunicationsOf verse: reading the same forwards or backwards; palindromic.

comparative more retrograde · superlative most retrograde

1. In a reverse direction; backwards.

   Synonyms: retrogradely

plural retrogrades

1. A movement backwards or opposite to the intended or normal motion.
   1. astrologyThe apparent movement of a planet across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement.
2. One who opposes social reform, favouring the maintenance of the status quo; a conservative.

   Synonyms: mossback, mossyback, reactionary, traditionalist

3. archaicOne who reneges on an agreement, or switches loyalties; a rebel, a renegade.
4. entertainmentThe reversal of a melody so that what is played first in the original melody is played last, and what is played last in the original melody is played first.

present singular third person retrogrades · participle present retrograding · participle past retrograded · past retrograded

1. transitivegeographyTo cause (a land feature such as a coastline or waterfall) to undergo retrogradation, that is, to travel in the direction of the land or upstream due to erosion.
2. transitivegeographyTo change (minerals, rocks, etc.) metamorphically through a decrease in pressure or temperature.
3. obsoletetransitiveTo cause (someone or something) to revert to an inferior or less developed state.
4. intransitiveTo revert to an inferior or less developed state; to decline, to regress.

   […] Monna Brigida, who had retrograded to false hair in Romola's absence, but now drew it off again and declared she would not mind being gray, if her dear child would stay with her.

   1862 July – 1863 August, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Romola. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1863, →OCLC, book III, page 260

5. intransitiveastrologyOf a celestial body, especially a planet: to show retrogradation; to seem to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement.
6. intransitivegeographyOf a land feature: to travel in the direction of the land or upstream due to erosion.
7. intransitivegovernmentTo retreat or withdraw from a position.
8. intransitiveobsoleteTo move backwards; to recede.

   A dabble in the stocks does not always turn out profitably; cotton is sometimes heavy on our hands, and real estate will sulkily retrograde, when, by the calculation, it ought to have advanced.

   1845, Joseph C. Neal, “The Moral of Goslyne Greene, who was Born to a Fortune”, in The Gift: A Christmas, New Year, and Birthday Present, Philadelphia, Pa.: Carey and Hart, →OCLC, page 68

9. intransitiveobsoleteOf the telling of an incident, etc.: to move to an earlier time.