Retrograde

Quick meaning: Retrograde is an adjective meaning Directed or moving backwards in relation to the normal or previous direction of travel; retreating.

Meaning

Directed or moving backwards in relation to the normal or previous direction of travel; retreating.

More Meanings

1. Reverting to an inferior or less developed state; declining, regressing.
2. Of the order of something: inverse, reverse.
3. Of ideas or a person: opposing social reform, favouring the maintenance of the status quo; conservative.
4. Involving a return to or a retracing of a previous course of travel.
5. Counterproductive to a desired outcome; contradictory, contrary.
6. Of a celestial body orbiting another: in the opposite direction to the orbited body's spin.
7. Of a celestial body: seeming to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement.

Example Sentences

Mercury retrograde

retrograde ideas, morals, etc.

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

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

Word Forms

• retrogrades
• retrograding
• retrograded

Synonyms for retrograde

Depending on context, synonyms include reactionary, traditionalist, backward, retrogradely, mossback, mossyback.

Antonyms for retrograde

Common opposites include anterograde, prograde, liberal, progressist, reformist, direct.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include retrogressive, regressing, retrogress, regress, regressive, retral.

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