- Moving or tending backward.
- Opposite to the usual order; inverted or reversed.
- Reverting to an earlier or inferior condition.
- Astronomy.
- Of or relating to the orbital revolution or axial rotation of a planetary or other celestial body that moves clockwise from east to west, in the direction opposite to most celestial bodies.
- Of or relating to the brief, regularly occurring, apparently backward movement of a planetary body in its orbit as viewed against the fixed stars, caused by the differing orbital velocities of Earth and the body observed.
- Archaic. Opposed; contrary.
- To move or seem to move backward. See synonyms at recede1.
- To decline to an inferior state; degenerate.
[Middle English, from Latin retrōgradus, from retrōgradī, to go back : retrō-, retro- + -gradus, walking (from gradī, to go).]
retrogradation ret'ro·gra·da'tion (-rō-grā-dā'shən) n.retrogradely ret'ro·grade'ly adv.







