The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Backward \Back"ward\, n.
   The state behind or past. [Obs.]
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         In the dark backward and abysm of time.  --Shak.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Backward \Back"ward\, v. t.
   To keep back; to hinder. [Obs.]
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Backward \Back"ward\, Backwards \Back"wards\, adv. [Back, adv. +
   -ward.]
   1. With the back in advance or foremost; as, to ride
      backward.
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   2. Toward the back; toward the rear; as, to throw the arms
      backward.
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   3. On the back, or with the back downward.
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            Thou wilt fall backward.              --Shak.
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   4. Toward, or in, past time or events; ago.
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            Some reigns backward.                 --Locke.
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   5. By way of reflection; reflexively. --Sir J. Davies.
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   6. From a better to a worse state, as from honor to shame,
      from religion to sin.
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            The work went backward.               --Dryden.
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   7. In a contrary or reverse manner, way, or direction;
      contrarily; as, to read backwards.
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            We might have . . . beat them backward home. --Shak.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Backward \Back"ward\, a.
   1. Directed to the back or rear; as, backward glances.
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   2. Unwilling; averse; reluctant; hesitating; loath.
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            For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves. --Pope.
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   3. Not well advanced in learning; not quick of apprehension;
      dull; inapt; as, a backward child. "The backward learner."
      --South.
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   4. Late or behindhand; as, a backward season.
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   5. Not advanced in civilization; undeveloped; as, the country
      or region is in a backward state.
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   6. Already past or gone; bygone. [R.]
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            And flies unconscious o'er each backward year.
                                                  --Byron.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

backward
    adv 1: at or to or toward the back or rear; "he moved back";
           "tripped when he stepped backward"; "she looked rearward
           out the window of the car" [syn: back, backward,
           backwards, rearward, rearwards] [ant: forrad,
           forrard, forward, forwards, frontward,
           frontwards]
    2: in a manner or order or direction the reverse of normal;
       "it's easy to get the `i' and the `e' backward in words like
       `seize' and `siege'"; "the child put her jersey on backward"
       [syn: backward, backwards]
    3: in or to or toward a past time; "set the clocks back an
       hour"; "never look back"; "lovers of the past looking fondly
       backward" [syn: back, backward] [ant: ahead, forward]
    adj 1: directed or facing toward the back or rear; "a backward
           view" [ant: forward]
    2: (used of temperament or behavior) marked by a retiring
       nature; "a backward lover" [ant: forward]
    3: retarded in intellectual development [syn: backward, half-
       witted, slow-witted, feebleminded]
    4: having made less than normal progress; "an economically
       backward country"

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

354 Moby Thesaurus words for "backward":
   Micawberish, Olympian, a priori, a rebours, a reculons, about,
   afraid, aft, after, after time, aftermost, again,
   against the grain, ago, aloof, anticlockwise, apathetic, arear,
   around, arrested, arsy-varsy, ascending, ass over elbows,
   ass-backwards, astern, averse, away, axial, babbling, back,
   back when, back-flowing, back-to-front, backwards, balking, balky,
   bashful, behind, behind the times, behind time, behindhand,
   belated, belatedly, benighted, bigoted, blank, blind, blithering,
   blocked, bottom side up, bottom up, burbling, capsized, chary,
   checked, chiastic, chilled, chilly, coarse, cold, conservative,
   constrained, contrarily, contrariwise, conversely, cool, counter,
   counterclockwise, coy, crackbrained, cracked, crazy, cretinistic,
   cretinous, crude, dallying, deep into, delayed, delayed-action,
   delaying, demure, descending, detached, detained, die-hard,
   diffident, dilatory, dillydallying, dim, dim-witted, discreet,
   distant, dithering, down-trending, downward, drifting, driveling,
   drooling, dull, dumb, early, easygoing, embryonic, everted,
   ex post facto, expressionless, far on, feebleminded, flowing,
   fluent, flying, fogyish, foot-dragging, forbidding, frigid, fro,
   frosty, going, gone by, grudging, guarded, gyrational, gyratory,
   half-baked, half-witted, head over heels, heels over head, held up,
   hesitant, hidebound, hind, hinder, hindermost, hindhand, hindmost,
   hindward, hindwards, hung up, hyperbatic, icy, idiotic, ignorant,
   imbecile, imbecilic, impassive, impeded, impersonal, in a bind,
   in abeyance, in embryo, in ovo, in reverse, in the rough,
   inaccessible, indifferent, indisposed, inside out, into the past,
   introverted, invaginated, inversed, inversely, inverted, jammed,
   lackadaisical, laggard, lagging, late, latish, lax, lazy,
   lingering, loath, loitering, maundering, medieval,
   mentally defective, mentally deficient, mentally handicapped,
   mentally retarded, modest, mongoloid, moratory, moronic, mounting,
   narrow, never on time, none too soon, nonprogressive,
   not all there, obstructed, obtuse, offish, old-fashioned,
   old-fogyish, old-line, opposed to change, outside in, over,
   overdue, oversimple, palindromic, passing, perfunctory, plunging,
   poor, posterior, posteriorly, postern, preservative,
   procrastinating, procrastinative, procrastinatory, progressive,
   quiet, reactionary, rear, rearmost, rearward, rearwards,
   reductionistic, reductive, reflex, reflowing, refluent, regressive,
   reluctant, reminiscently, remiss, remote, removed, renitent,
   repressed, reserved, restive, restrained, resupinate, retarded,
   reticent, retiring, retrad, retral, retroactive, retroactively,
   retrograde, retrogressive, retrospective, retrospectively,
   retroverted, reverse, reversed, right-wing, rising, rotary,
   rotational, rotatory, rough, roughcast, roughhewn, round,
   round about, rude, rudimental, rudimentary, running, rushing,
   self-effacing, set back, shrinking, shuffling, shy, sideward,
   simple, simpleminded, simpletonian, simplistic, since, sinking,
   slack, slobbering, slow, slow to, slow-witted, slowed down,
   sluggish, soaring, standoff, standoffish, standpat, stopped,
   streaming, struggling, stunted, stupid, subdued, subnormal,
   suppressed, tail, tailward, tailwards, tardy, thickheaded, timid,
   to the rear, topsy-turvy, transposed, turned around,
   ultraconservative, unaffable, unapproachable, unassertive,
   unassured, unblown, uncongenial, uncultivated, uncultured, uncut,
   undemonstrative, underdeveloped, undeveloped, uneager,
   unenlightened, unenthusiastic, unexpansive, unfashioned,
   unfinished, unformed, ungenial, unhewn, uninformed, unlabored,
   unlicked, unpolished, unprocessed, unprogressive, unpunctual,
   unready, unrefined, untimely, untreated, unwilling, unworked,
   unwrought, unzealous, up-trending, upside down, upside-down,
   upward, vice versa, widdershins, withdrawn, wrong side out,
   wrong-way, wrong-way around