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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)

98,828 entries. Headwords are matched first, then definition text.

8 words match “RETROACT”

RETROACT v.
To act backward, or in return; to act in opposition; to be retrospective.
RETROACTION n. 2 definitions
Action returned, or action backward.
RETROACTIVE a.
Fitted or designed to retroact; operating by returned action; affecting what is past; retrospective. Beddoes. Retroactive law or statute (Law), one which operates to make criminal or punishable, or in any way expressly to affect, acts done prior to the passing of the law.
RETROACTIVELY adv.
In a retroactive manner.
EXPOST FACTO; EXPOSTFACTO n.
cation, as employed in American law, it relates only to crimes, and signifies a law which retroacts, by way of criminal punishment, upon that which was not a crime before its passage, or which raises the grade of an offense, or renders an act punishable in a more severe manner that it was when committed. Ex post facto…
REFLEX a.
Directed back; attended by reflection; retroactive; introspective. The reflex act of the soul, or the turning of the intellectual eye inward upon its own actions. Sir M. Hale.
RETRO- adv.
A prefix or combining form signifying backward, back; as, retroact, to act backward; retrospect, a looking back.
RETROSPECTIVE a.
Having reference to what is past; affecting things past; retroactive; as, a retrospective law. Inflicting death by a retrospective enactment. Macaulay.