retrogress

verb

ret·​ro·​gress ˌre-trə-ˈgres 

retrogressed; retrogressing; retrogresses

intransitive verb

: to move backward : revert

Did you know?

As you might guess, retrogress is the opposite of progress. Retrogression is usually an undesirable decline from a higher or advanced level. So, for instance, in difficult social situations an adolescent can retrogress to a childish level of maturity. And under the extreme conditions of total war, a whole society may retrogress to a primitive state. The increasing number of poor or homeless people has been seen as evidence of modern social retrogression, and the rise of loud, name-calling TV and radio personalities strikes many people as a sign of political retrogression.

Synonyms

• regress
• return
• revert

Examples of retrogress in a Sentence

the quality of research at the university lab has begun to retrogress since the massive budget cuts went into effect

Recent Examples on the Web

After the 1960s, after the switch in—the shift in the strategy to gaining political clout, a lot of those trends stalled, slowed, even retrogressed. —WSJ, 3 July 2017

Word History

Etymology

Latin retrogressus, past participle of retrogradi

First Known Use

1812, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

retrogress

verb

ret·​ro·​gress ˌre-trə-ˈgres 

: to move backward