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Incapable of being reversed or turned about or back; incapable of being made to run backward; as, an irreversible engine.

A sudden start or spring. Lobsters . . . swim backwards by jerks or springs. Grew.

To move restively backward or sidewise, -- said of a horse; to balk. [Written also jibb.] [Eng.]

nce; to strike out with the foot or feet, as in defense or in bad temper; esp., to strike backward, as a horse does, or to have a habit of doing so. Hence, figuratively: To show ugly resistance, opposition, or hostility; to spurn. I should kick, being kicked. Shak.

Slow; sluggish; backward.

To pass slowly and smoothly downward, backward, or away; to slip downward, backward, or away; to glide; -- mostly restricted to figurative uses. A tendency to lapse into the barbarity of those northern nations from whom we are descended. Swift. Homer, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites, has lapsed into the burle…

Having slipped downward, backward, or away; having lost position, privilege, etc., by neglect; -- restricted to figurative uses. Once more I will renew His lapsed powers, though forfeit. Milton.

by his benefit. Lovelace. The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint. Milton. Looking backward in vain toward their Lares and lands. Longfellow.

Somewhat late; backward. [Obs.] "Lateward lands." Holland.

A bow, esp. in the phrase to make a leg; probably from drawing the leg backward in bowing. [Obs.] He that will give a cap and make a leg in thanks for a favor he never received. Fuller.

hout it. [Colloq.]. -- To make sternway, to move with the stern foremost; to go or drift backward. -- To make strange, to act in an unfriendly manner or as if surprised; to treat as strange; as, to make strange of a request or suggestion. -- To make suit to, to endeavor to gain the favor of; to court. -- To make su…

A process projecting backward and downward from the acromion of the scapula of some mammals.

a frame. (b) Flat glass used for making mirrors. -- Mirror writing, a manner or form of backward writing, making manuscript resembling in slant and order of letters the reflection of ordinary writing in a mirror. The substitution of this manner of writing for the common manner is a symptom of some kinds of nervous di…

ard a point before or in front; forward; progressively; as, to move onward. Not one looks backward, onward still he goes. Pope.

A tetanic spasm in which the body is bent backwards and stiffened.

Having the front of the head, or the skull, nearly perpendicular, not retreating backwards above the jaws; -- opposed to Ant: prognathous. See Gnathic index, under Gnathic.

To move backward and forward; to vibrate like a pendulum; to swing; to sway.

The act of oscillating; a swinging or moving backward and forward, like a pendulum; vibration.

Moving, or characterized by motion, backward and forward like a pendulum; swinging; oscillating; vibratory; as, oscillatory motion.

A word, verse, or sentence, that is the same when read backward or forward; as, madam; Hannah; or Lewd did I live, & evil I did dwel.