retrograde

adj

1. Directed or moving backwards in relation to the normal or previous direction of travel; retreating.
2. Reverting to an inferior or less developed state; declining, regressing.
3. Reverting to an inferior or less developed state; declining, regressing.
4. Of the order of something: inverse, reverse.
5. Of the order of something: inverse, reverse.
6. Of ideas or a person: opposing social reform, favouring the maintenance of the status quo; conservative.

   “retrograde ideas, morals, etc.”

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

   “[…] in the form of the pussyfooted Alexis Smith. While referring to [Cole] Porter's 1946 film (alleged) biography, Night and Day, she mentions there were "certain aspects of the story which at that time they could not do." Was "certain aspects" a euphemism for gay? Smith's misplaced politeness here is truly retrograde.”

7. (archaic)Involving a return to or a retracing of a previous course of travel.
8. (archaic)Counterproductive to a desired outcome; contradictory, contrary.

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

9. Of a celestial body orbiting another: in the opposite direction to the orbited body's spin.
10. (also, often, postpositional)Of a celestial body: seeming to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement.

    “Mercury retrograde”

    “The inauspicious connotations of Mercury retrograde are actually quite old, evidenced in an ancient branch of astrology known as horary astrology.”

11. Of a metamorphic change: resulting from a decrease in pressure or temperature.
12. Of amnesia: relating to the period leading up to the episode which caused it.
13. (archaic)Of verse: reading the same forwards or backwards; palindromic.

adv

1. In a reverse direction; backwards.

noun

1. A movement backwards or opposite to the intended or normal motion.
2. A movement backwards or opposite to the intended or normal motion.
3. One who opposes social reform, favouring the maintenance of the status quo; a conservative.
4. (archaic)One who reneges on an agreement, or switches loyalties; a rebel, a renegade.
5. The reversal of a melody so that what is played first in the original melody is played last, and what is played last in the original melody is played first.

verb

1. (transitive)To cause (a land feature such as a coastline or waterfall) to undergo retrogradation, that is, to travel in the direction of the land or upstream due to erosion.
2. (transitive)To change (minerals, rocks, etc.) metamorphically through a decrease in pressure or temperature.
3. (obsolete, transitive)To cause (someone or something) to revert to an inferior or less developed state.
4. (intransitive)To revert to an inferior or less developed state; to decline, to regress.

   “[…] Monna Brigida, who had retrograded to false hair in Romola's absence, but now drew it off again and declared she would not mind being gray, if her dear child would stay with her.”

5. (intransitive)Of a celestial body, especially a planet: to show retrogradation; to seem to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement.
6. (intransitive)Of a land feature: to travel in the direction of the land or upstream due to erosion.
7. (intransitive)To retreat or withdraw from a position.
8. (intransitive, obsolete)To move backwards; to recede.

   “A dabble in the stocks does not always turn out profitably; cotton is sometimes heavy on our hands, and real estate will sulkily retrograde, when, by the calculation, it ought to have advanced.”

9. (intransitive, obsolete)Of the telling of an incident, etc.: to move to an earlier time.