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Directed to the back or rear; as, backward glances.

With the back in advance or foremost; as, to ride backward.

The seller's postponement of delivery of stock or shares, with the consent of the buyer, upon payment of a premium to the latter; -- also, the premium so paid. See Contango. Biddle.

Perversely; ill.[Obs.] And does he think so backwardly of me Shak.

The state of being backward.

Toward the back or rear; backward. "Therewith aback she started." Chaucer.

s are directed downward and forward, but the posterior legs are usually turned upward and backward. The beach flea is an example. See Tetradecapoda and Arthrostraca.

A prefix in words from the Greek, denoting up, upward, throughout, backward, back, again, anew.

Literally, the letters of a word read backwards, but in its usual wider sense, the change or one word or phrase into another by the transposition of its letters. Thus Galenus becomes angelus; William Noy (attorney-general to Charles I., and a laborious man) may be turned into I moyl in law.

Characterized by unequal toes, three turned forward and one backward, as in most passerine birds.

Backward; in or to the rear; behindhand. Spenser.

To or in the rear; behind; backwards. [Obs.] Spenser.

tude of a planet. Ferguson. -- Ascending line (Geneol.), the line of relationship traced backward or through one's ancestors. One's father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, etc., are in the line direct ascending. -- Ascending node having, that node of the moon or a planet wherein it passes the ecliptic to proc…

To refer something to its cause or source; as, to attribute a backward spring to icebergs off the coast. Ascribe is used equally in both these senses, but involves a different image. To impute usually denotes to ascribe something doubtful or wrong, and hence, in general literature, has commonly a bad sense; as, to impu…

In or at the hinder part of a ship; toward the hinder part, or stern; backward; as, to go astern.

Turned away or backward. [Obs.] The tracks averse a lying notice gave, And led the searcher backward from the cave. Dryden.

Backward; in a backward direction; as, emitted aversely.

Backward. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Moving or operating backward; as, back action. Back charges, charges brought forward after an account has been made up. -- Back filling (Arch.), the mass of materials used in filling up the space between two walls, or between the inner and outer faces of a wall, or upon the haunches of an arch or vault. -- Back press…

With the hand turned backward; as, a backhanded blow.