Some Negroes, who see every action in terms of moving the ethnic group forward or pushing it backward, were highly irritated.
A backward step upon an uneven cobblestone suddenly returns him to a visit he made to Venice when his mother was still alive.
It's futuristic—but it's also backward, charges Mack Tight, the self-described "pickup artist" who runs ESeduce.com.
Coupled with Romney exuding a belief that this is a country that can still move forward, not backward.
Our theme was tough times, tough decisions, moving forward not backward.
The same phenomenon presents itself to-day in backward and semi-barbaric communities.
The recoil, catching him in a bad posture, knocked him backward.
Every one knew also that Katie felt for the backward girls and those who were slow and dull.
The dog-musher indicated White Fang with a backward thrust of his thumb.
He goes into the forest with a backward look; he comes out of the forest sometimes with a secret and a stricken countenance.
c.1300, from abakward, from Old English on bæc (see back (adv.)) + -weard adjectival and adverbial suffix (see -ward). Old English had the adverb bæcling. As an adjective, from 1550s. Meaning "behindhand with regard to progress" is first attested 1690s. To ring bells backward (from lowest to highest), c.1500, was a signal of alarm for fire or invasion, or to express dismay. Another Middle English word for "backward, wrongly" was arseward (c.1400).