Note: in AM, use 'backward'
1.
If you move or look ~, you move or look in the direction that your back is facing.
The diver flipped over ~ into the water...
He took two steps backward...
Bess glanced ~...
Keeping your back straight, swing one leg ~.
ADV: ADV after v
•
Backwards is also an adjective.
Without so much as a ~ glance, he steered her towards the car.
ADJ: ADJ n
2.
If you do something ~, you do it in the opposite way to the usual way.
He works ~, building a house from the top downwards.
ADV: ADV after v
3.
You use ~ 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 ~.
...the blaming that keeps us looking backward.
ADV: ADV after v, n ADV
4.
see also backward
5.
If someone or something moves ~ and forwards, they move repeatedly first in one direction and then in the opposite direction.
Draw the floss ~ and forwards between the teeth.
...people travelling ~ and forwards to and from London.
PHRASE: PHR after v
6.
to bend over ~: see bend