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Towards a position further back
“His head would suddenly move backwards when he heard something in the courtroom that pointed to the truth about his involvement in their deaths.”
In the opposite direction
“Irene glanced backwards and saw that there was no man there.”
In the reverse of the usual order or direction
“A three-digit number was presented, and participants were instructed to count backwards by threes for 10 seconds.”
Towards or into a worse state
“We're seeing a majority of the population slide backwards economically and into despair.”
To the past
“Another layman's plaint against our law is that we're always looking backwards instead of forward.”
Having the inner surface turned outwards
With the order reversed
In a retroflexive manner
Reversed in orientation
“The backwards lettering on emergency vehicles makes it possible to read in the rear-view mirror.”
(derogatory) Behind current trends or technology
“Modern medicine regards the use of leeches as a backwards practice.”
Clumsy, inept, or inefficient, especially in learning
“He may have been a backwards scholar, but he was a marvel on the athletics field.”
Having made less progress than is normal or expected
“It cannot be considered a backwards culture, but rather has to be seen as a different culture.”
Towards a position behind or to the rear
Objects or elements flipped, changed or swapped in the opposite order or orientation
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