1. Directed or facing toward the back or rear
   "a backward view"
    
2. Less developed or advanced than expected or others
   "an economically backward country"
    
3. (used of temperament or behaviour) marked by a retiring nature
   "a backward lover"
    
4. Slow to understand, learn or think; stupid
   "Poor backward Charlie was kept steadily at work";
   - half-witted, slow-witted, feebleminded, dull-witted [archaic]

1. At or to or toward the back or rear
   "tripped when he stepped backward";
   - back, backwards, rearward, rearwards
    
2. In a manner, order or direction the reverse of normal
   "it's easy to get the ‘i’ and the ‘e’ backward in words like ‘seize’ and ‘siege’"; "the child put her jersey on backward";
   - backwards
    
3. In, to or toward a past time
   "lovers of the past looking fondly backward";
   - back

See also: adynamic [archaic], backswept, bashful, blate [UK, dialect], cacuminal, converse, inverse, mentally retarded, rearward, receding, reflexive, regardant, regressive, retracted, retral, retroflex, retroflexed, retrograde, retrospective, returning, reverse, reversed, reversive, self-referent, sweptback, timid, transposed, undynamic

Antonym: forward, frontward

Encyclopedia: Backward