Sekirov Dictionary

retrograde

UK /ˈɹɛtɹə(ʊ)ɡɹeɪd/US /ˈɹɛtɹəˌɡɹeɪd/

adjective 13
verb 9
noun 5
adverb 1
forms 5

adjective13

Directed or moving backwards in relation to the normal or previous direction of travel; retreating.
Of a celestial body orbiting another: in the opposite direction to the orbited body's spin.
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[after a noun] Of a celestial body: seeming to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement.
- The inauspicious connotations of Mercury retrograde are actually quite old, evidenced in an ancient branch of astrology known as horary astrology. — 2018
Reverting to an inferior or less developed state; declining, regressing.
Of an animal: appearing to regress to a less developed form during its lifetime.
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Of ideas or a person: opposing social reform, favouring the maintenance of the status quo; conservative.
- retrograde ideas, morals, etc.
Of amnesia: relating to the period leading up to the episode which caused it.
Of the order of something: inverse, reverse.
Having a passage of music played backwards.
Of a metamorphic change: resulting from a decrease in pressure or temperature.
(no longer used) Involving a return to or a retracing of a previous course of travel.
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(no longer used) 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 — 1599
(no longer used) Of verse: reading the same forwards or backwards; palindromic.

verb9

To retreat or withdraw from a position.
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.
•
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. — 1862
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.
Of a land feature: to travel in the direction of the land or upstream due to erosion.
To change (minerals, rocks, etc.) metamorphically through a decrease in pressure or temperature.
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(no longer used) 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. — 1845
(no longer used) To cause (someone or something) to revert to an inferior or less developed state.
(no longer used) Of the telling of an incident, etc.: to move to an earlier time.

noun5

A movement backwards or opposite to the intended or normal motion.
The apparent movement of a planet across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement.
One who opposes social reform, favouring the maintenance of the status quo; a conservative.
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.
(no longer used) One who reneges on an agreement, or switches loyalties; a rebel, a renegade.

adverb1

In a reverse direction; backwards.

forms

retrograded · retrograding · retrogrades · more retrograde · most retrograde

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