Word Meanings - BACKWARD - Book Publishers vocabulary database

1. Directed to the back or rear; as, backward glances. 2. Unwilling; averse; reluctant; hesitating; loath. For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves. Pope. 3. Not well advanced in learning; not quick of apprehension; dull; inapt; as, a backward

Additional info about word: BACKWARD

1. Directed to the back or rear; as, backward glances. 2. Unwilling; averse; reluctant; hesitating; loath. For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves. Pope. 3. Not well advanced in learning; not quick of apprehension; dull; inapt; as, a backward child. "The backward learner." South. 4. Late or behindhand; as, a backward season. 5. Not advanced in civilization; undeveloped; as, the country or region is in a backward state. 6. Already past or gone; bygone. And flies unconscious o'er each backward year. Byron.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of BACKWARD)

• Averse
• Hostile
• disinclined
• indisposed
• repugnant
• backward
• unwilling
• reluctant
• loath
• Reluctant
• loth
• Slack
• Loose
• weak
• remiss
• indiligent
• slow
• tardy
• lax
• Tardy
• Slow
• sluggish
• dilatory
• behindhand
• loitering
• late

Possible antonyms: (opposite words of BACKWARD)

• Tie
• fasten
• hold
• retain

Related words: (words related to BACKWARD)

• REMISS
  Not energetic or exact in duty or business; not careful or prompt in fulfilling engagements; negligent; careless; tardy; behindhand; lagging; slack; hence, lacking earnestness or activity; languid; slow. Thou never wast remiss, I bear thee witness.
• REMISSLY
  In a remiss or negligent manner; carelessly.
• AVERSENESS
  The quality of being averse; opposition of mind; unwillingness.
• REMISSORY
  Serving or tending to remit, or to secure remission; remissive. "A sacrifice expiatory or remissory." Latimer.
• RETAINMENT
  The act of retaining; retention. Dr. H. More.
• REMISSIVE
  Remitting; forgiving; abating. Bp. Hacket.
• FASTENER
  One who, or that which, makes fast or firm.
• REMISSIBLE
  Capable of being remitted or forgiven. Feltham.
• BACKWARD; BACKWARDS
  1. With the back in advance or foremost; as, to ride backward. 2. Toward the back; toward the rear; as, to throw the arms backward. 3. On the back, or with the back downward. Thou wilt fall backward. Shak. 4. Toward, or in, past time or events;
• UNWILL
  To annul or reverse by an act of the will. Longfellow.
• LOITERER
  1. One who loiters; an idler. 2. An idle vagrant; a tramp. Bp. Sanderson.
• AVERSE
  1. Turned away or backward. The tracks averse a lying notice gave, And led the searcher backward from the cave. Dryden. 2. Having a repugnance or opposition of mind; disliking; disinclined; unwilling; reluctant. Averse alike to flatter, or offend.
• HOSTILELY
  In a hostile manner.
• LOOSEN
  Etym: 1. To make loose; to free from tightness, tension, firmness, or fixedness; to make less dense or compact; as, to loosen a string, or a knot; to loosen a rock in the earth. After a year's rooting, then shaking doth the tree good by loosening
• SLACK; SLACKEN
  1. To become slack; to be made less tense, firm, or rigid; to decrease in tension; as, a wet cord slackens in dry weather. 2. To be remiss or backward; to be negligent. 3. To lose cohesion or solidity by a chemical combination with water; to slake;
• RETAIN
  1. To belong; to pertain. A somewhat languid relish, retaining to bitterness. Boyle. 2. To keep; to continue; to remain. Donne.
• INDISPOSE
  1. To render unfit or unsuited; to disqualify. 2. To disorder slightly as regards health; to make somewhat. Shak. It made him rather indisposed than sick. Walton. 3. To disincline; to render averse or unfavorable; as, a love of pleasure indisposes
• LOITERINGLY
  In a loitering manner.
• LOOSESTRIFE
  The name of several species of plants of the genus Lysimachia, having small star-shaped flowers, usually of a yellow color. Any species of the genus Lythrum, having purple, or, in some species, crimson flowers. Gray. False loosestrife, a plant
• INDISPOSITION
  1. The state of being indisposed; disinclination; as, the indisposition of two substances to combine. A general indisposition towards believing. Atterbury. 2. A slight disorder or illness. Rather as an indisposition in health than as
• FORSLACK
  To neglect by idleness; to delay or to waste by sloth. Spenser.
• TRAVERSE
  Lying across; being in a direction across something else; as, paths cut with traverse trenches. Oak . . . being strong in all positions, may be better trusted in cross and traverse work. Sir H. Wotton. The ridges of the fallow field traverse.
• AIR-SLACKED
  Slacked, or pulverized, by exposure to the air; as, air-slacked lime.
• UNFASTEN
  To loose; to unfix; to unbind; to untie.
• UNSLACKED
  Not slacked; unslaked; as, unslacked lime.
• PREINDISPOSE
  To render indisposed beforehand. Milman.
• LOOSE
  laus, Icel. lauss; akin to OD. loos, D. los, AS. leás false, deceitful, G. los, loose, Dan. & Sw. lös, Goth. laus, and E. lose. 1. Unbound; untied; unsewed; not attached, fastened, fixed, or confined; as, the loose sheets of a book. Her hair,
• COPPER-FASTENED
  Fastened with copper bolts, as the planks of ships, etc.; as, a copper-fastened ship.