Dictionary

Oriented toward the back.

Example: The battleship had three backwards guns at the stern, in addition to the primary complement.

Reversed.

Example: The backwards lettering on emergency vehicles makes it possible to read in the rear-view mirror.

Behind current trends or technology.

Example: Modern medicine regards the use of leeches as a backwards practice.

Clumsy, inept, or inefficient, especially in learning.

Example: He was a very backwards scholar, but he was a marvel on the football field.

Toward the back.

Example: Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards.—Søren Kierkegaard

In the opposite direction to usual.

Example: The clock did not work because the battery was inserted backwards.

In a manner such that the back precedes the front.

Example: The tour guide walked backwards while droning on to the bored seniors.

Towards the past; ago