retrograde

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Moving or tending backward.
2. adj. Opposite to the usual order; inverted or reversed.
3. adj. Reverting to an earlier or inferior condition.
4. adj. 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.
5. adj. Astronomy 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.
6. adj. Archaic Opposed; contrary.
7. v. To move or seem to move backward. See Synonyms at recede¹.
8. v. To decline to an inferior state; degenerate.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To go backward; move backward.
2. To fall back or away; lose ground; decline; deteriorate; degenerate.
3. In astronomy, to move westward relatively to the fixed stars.
4. In biology, to undergo retrogression, as a plant or an animal; be retrograde or retrogressive; develop a less from a more complex organization; degenerate.
5. To cause to go backward; turn back.
6. Moving backward; having a backward motion or direction; retreating.
7. Specifically, in astronomy, moving backward and contrary to the order of the signs relatively to the fixed stars: opposed to direct. The epithet does not apply to the diurnal motion, since this is not relative to the fixed stars.
8. In biology, characterized by or exhibiting degeneration or deterioration, as an organism or any of its parts which passes or has passed from a higher or more complex to a lower or simpler structure or composition; noting such change of organization: as, retrograde metamorphosis or development; a retrograde theory.
9. In zoology, habitually walking or swimming backward, as many animals: correlated with laterigrade, gravigrade, saltigrade, etc.
10. In botany: Going backward in the order of specialization, from a more to a less highly developed form: referring either to reversions of type or to individual monsters.
11. Formerly used of hairs, in the sense of retrorse.
12. Losing ground; deteriorating; declining in strength or excellence.
13. Contrary; opposed; opposite.
14. Change of tissue or substance from the more complex to the simpler composition; catabolism. See metamorphosis.
15. n. In billiards, the pull-back, draw, or recoil.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Directed backwards, retreating; reverting especially inferior state, declining; inverse, reverse; movement opposite to normal or intended motion, often circular motion.
2. adj. Counterproductive to a desired outcome.
3. adj. astronomy In the opposite direction to the orbited body's spin.
4. n. A degenerate person.
5. n. 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.
6. v. intransitive To move backwards; to recede; to retire; to decline; to revert.
7. v. intransitive, astronomy To show retrogradation.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. (Astron.) Apparently moving backward, and contrary to the succession of the signs, that is, from east to west, as a planet.
2. adj. Tending or moving backward; having a backward course; contrary; ; -- opposed to progressive.
3. adj. Declining from a better to a worse state
4. v. To go in a retrograde direction; to move, or appear to move, backward, as a planet.
5. v. Hence, to decline from a better to a worse condition, as in morals or intelligence.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. get worse or fall back to a previous condition
2. v. go back over
3. v. move in a direction contrary to the usual one
4. v. move back
5. adj. moving or directed or tending in a backward direction or contrary to a previous direction
6. adj. moving from east to west on the celestial sphere; or--for planets--around the sun in a direction opposite to that of the Earth
7. adj. of amnesia; affecting time immediately preceding trauma
8. adj. going from better to worse
9. v. move backward in an orbit, of celestial bodies