BACKWARDS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does backwards mean? 

• BACKWARDS (adverb)
  The adverb BACKWARDS has 2 senses:

1. at or to or toward the back or rear

2. in a manner or order or direction the reverse of normal

  Familiarity information: BACKWARDS used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BACKWARDS (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

At or to or toward the back or rear

Synonyms:

back; backward; backwards; rearward; rearwards

Context example:

she looked rearward out the window of the car

Sense 2

Meaning:

In a manner or order or direction the reverse of normal

Synonyms:

backward; backwards

Context example:

the child put her jersey on backward

 Context examples 

And now the juniper-tree began to move, and the branches waved backwards and forwards, first away from one another, and then together again, as it might be someone clapping their hands for joy.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The room in which the ladies sat was backwards.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I was conveyed to his own house; and at my earnest request he led me up to the highest room backwards.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Following the path backwards, we picked out another spot, where a spring trickled across it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I tried it backwards, but the combination ‘life pheasant’s hen’ was not encouraging.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Backwards; in a direction toward the tail or posterior extremity of the body.

(Caudad, NCI Thesaurus)

A request that an individual count backwards from 20 to 1.

(Count Backwards from 20 to 1, NCI Thesaurus)

So fierce was their meeting that their spears shivered up to the very grasp, and the horses reared backwards until it seemed that they must crash down upon their riders.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But especially I noticed that his chin was always coming round to his shoulder, and that at the end of every round he sent keen little glances flying backwards into the crowd.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Once Mercury turns backwards, you will need to be careful to avoid signing anything.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)