Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - backwards

Note: in AM, use 'backward' 1. If you move or look backwards, you move or look in the direction that your back is facing. The diver flipped over backwards into the water... He took two steps backward... Bess glanced backwards... Keeping your back straight, swing one leg backwards. ADV: ADV after v • Backwards is also an adjective. Without so much as a backwards glance, he steered her towards the car. ADJ: ADJ n 2. If you do something backwards, you do it in the opposite way to the usual way. He works backwards, building a house from the top downwards. ADV: ADV after v 3. You use backwards to indicate that something changes or develops in a way that is not an improvement, but is a return to old ideas or methods. Greater government intervention in businesses would represent a step backwards. ...the blaming that keeps us looking backward. ADV: ADV after v, n ADV 4. see also backward 5. If someone or something moves backwards and forwards, they move repeatedly first in one direction and then in the opposite direction. Draw the floss backwards and forwards between the teeth. ...people travelling backwards and forwards to and from London. PHRASE: PHR after v 6. to bend over backwards: see bend