Definition of "retrograde"

Directed or moving backwards in relation to the normal or previous direction of travel; retreating.  examples

Reverting to an inferior or less developed state; declining, regressing.

1. (zoology) Of an animal: appearing to regress to a less developed form during its lifetime.

Of the order of something: inverse, reverse.

1. (music) Having a passage of music played backwards.  examples

Of ideas or a person: opposing social reform, favouring the maintenance of the status quo; conservative.  quotations  examples

(archaic)

1. Involving a return to or a retracing of a previous course of travel.  examples

2. Counterproductive to a desired outcome; contradictory, contrary.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • In going back to school in Wittenberg, / It is most retrograde to our desire: / And we beseech you, bend you to remain

     c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]

(astronomy)

1. Of a celestial body orbiting another: in the opposite direction to the orbited body's spin.  examples

2. (also astrology, often postpositive) Of a celestial body: seeming to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement.  quotations

   Quotations

   • The inauspicious connotations of Mercury retrograde are actually quite old, evidenced in an ancient branch of astrology known as horary astrology.

     2018 March 22, Wilder Davies, “Mercury Is Entering Retrograde Again. This Is Why So Many People Care”, in Time‎

(geology) Of a metamorphic change: resulting from a decrease in pressure or temperature.

(medicine) Of amnesia: relating to the period leading up to the episode which caused it.  examples

(poetry, archaic) Of verse: reading the same forwards or backwards; palindromic.

In a reverse direction; backwards.  examples

A movement backwards or opposite to the intended or normal motion.

1. (astrology) 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.  examples

(archaic) One who reneges on an agreement, or switches loyalties; a rebel, a renegade.

(music) 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.  examples

(transitive)

1. (geography) 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.  examples

2. (geology) To change (minerals, rocks, etc.) metamorphically through a decrease in pressure or temperature.

3. (obsolete) To cause (someone or something) to revert to an inferior or less developed state.

(intransitive)

1. To revert to an inferior or less developed state; to decline, to regress.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • […] 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 July – 1863 August, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Romola. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1863, book III, page 260

2. (astrology, astronomy) 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.

3. (geography) Of a land feature: to travel in the direction of the land or upstream due to erosion.  examples

4. (military) To retreat or withdraw from a position.

5. (obsolete)

   1. To move backwards; to recede.  quotations  examples

      Quotations

      • 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, Joseph C. Neal, “The Moral of Goslyne Greene, who was Born to a Fortune”, in The Gift: A Christmas, New Year, and Birthday Present, Philadelphia, Pa.: Carey and Hart, page 68

   2. Of the telling of an incident, etc.: to move to an earlier time.  examples