KJV Dictionary Definition: backwardness

backwardness

BACK'WARDNESS, n. Unwillingness; reluctance, dilatoriness, or dullness in action.

2. A state of being behind in progress; slowness; tardiness; as the backwardness of the spring.

backwards

BACK'WARDS, adv.back and ward. See Ward. With the back in advance; as, to move backward.

2. Toward the back; as, to throw the arms backward; to move backwards and forwards.

3. On the back, or with the back downwards; as, to fall backward.

4. Toward past times or events; as to look backward on the history of man.

5. By way of reflection; reflexively.

6. From a better to a worse state; as, public affairs go backward.

7. In time past; as,let us look some ages backward.

8. Perversely; from a wrong end.

I never yet saw man but she would spell him backward.

9. Towards the beginning; in an order contrary to the natural order; as, to read backward.

10. In a scriptural sense, to go or turn backward, is to rebel, apostatize, or relapse into sin, or idolatry. Is.i.

11. Contrarily; in a contrary manner.

To be driven or turned backward, is to be defeated, or disappointed. Ps.xl.turn judgment backward, is to pervert justice and laws. Is.lix.