retrogressive, a. and n.
(riːtrəʊ-, rɛtrəʊˈgrɛsɪv)
[f. as retrogress v. + -ive.]
A. adj.
1. Working back in investigation or reasoning.
| 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. xxii. II. 141 When the successive acts of attention have been completed, there is a retrogressive effort of mind to behold it as a whole. 1835 I. Taylor Spir. Despot. vi. 283 Our retrogressive enquiry. 1871 Blackie Four Phases Mor. i. 75 The slow retrogressive process of induction. |
2. Moving or directed backwards.
| 1830 Blackw. Mag. XXVII. 523 He sent orders..to stop his retrogressive march. 1868 Lyell Princ. Geol. (ed. 10) II. ii. xxvi. 35 In addition to the retrogressive excavation of the head of the ravine. |
3. a. Retrograde; tending to return to an inferior state; going back to a worse condition.
| 1802 Pinkerton Mod. Geogr. I. Pref. 6 It is a lamentable circumstance that geography is at times retrogressive in some points, while it advances in others. 1860 M. W. Freer Hist. Hen. IV, II. ii. iv. 68 His son..protested against this retrogressive policy. 1891 Sat. Rev. 18 July 82/2 Spain,..with the exception of Turkey, is the most obstinately retrogressive of European countries. |
b. spec. in Path. or Anat. of changes in tissues or organs.
| 1871 T. H. Green Introd. Path. 190 The contents are the products of retrogressive tissue metamorphosis. 1877 Huxley Anat. Inv. Anim. x. 610 In the same position as that occupied by the remains of this appendage, when it has undergone retrogressive metamorphosis. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 893 Retrogressive changes may occur, as in true gummatous formations. |
c. Petrol. = retrograde a. 3 e.
| 1931 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. CCXXI. 8 No one criterion is a safe basis for the determination of retrogressive metamorphism. 1948 Mem. Geol. Soc. Amer. XXX. 299 Retrogressive metamorphism, or diaphthoresis, is the mineralogical adjustment of relatively high-grade metamorphic rocks to temperatures lower than those of their initial metamorphism. The process is thus a special case of polymetamorphism (repeated metamorphism). |
B. n. One with retrograde tendencies.
| 1892 Star 19 Mar. 1/6 The Retrogressives are themselves invading barbarians. |
Hence retroˈgressively adv. (Ogilvie, 1850). Also retroˈgressivism (nonce-wd.).
| 1893 Fortn. Rev. Feb. 277 His peculiar type of Retrogressivism (it would be flattery to call it Conservatism). |