backwards

/ ˈbækwədz /

adverb

1. towards the rear

2. with the back foremost

3. in the reverse of usual order or direction

4. to or towards the past

5. into a worse state

   the patient was slipping backwards

6. towards the point of origin

7. informal,  to make a special effort, esp in order to please

8. informal,  to understand completely

Example Sentences

“I’ll bend him over backwards, give him something to believe in,” she sings.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

She said the move was a "real step backwards" and that a complainer's right to privacy must be considered as well as the right to a fair trial.

Read more on BBC

One whistleblower told a newspaper last year that Ofsted was "bending over backwards" to make inspections less stressful - at pupils' expense.

Read more on BBC

But when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, she was thrust into a different and, as she describes it, “really backwards” technological world.

Read more on MarketWatch

But Kallum Watkins, the only player to feature both in that final and the current squad, insists England have not gone backwards.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• back 
• backward