Backward vs Indirect - What's the difference?
backward | indirect |
(of motion) Pertaining to the direction towards the back.
(of motion) Pertaining to the direction reverse of normal.
Reluctant or unable to advance.
* 1919 ,
* Don't be backward in suggesting story ideas to local media but always think of the wants, needs and desires of their readers when selling-in story ideas.[http://www.mortgagemagazine.com.au/detail_article.cfm?articleID=364]
Of a culture considered undeveloped or unsophisticated.
* Most cruelly, the immediate security interests of the United States and the states surrounding Somalia are now to keep it a failed state, to prevent Islamists from consolidating even a weak state centered on Mogadishu. The leader of the victorious faction, one Aden Hashi 'Ayro, is said to be a veteran of Afghanistan; he knows well what a small sanctuary in a backward corner of the globe can mean for al Qaeda. [http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2006/06/1851044]
Pertaining to a thought or value that is considered outdated.
* Replace the morbid, bankrupting, backward idea of superpower domination: Weapons dismantled. Global warming reversed. Perhaps, in time, overpopulation, poverty, starvation, ignorance and disease all resolved. Thus, moral determination combined with 21st Century science, ecology and social initiatives will make possible a resonant fulfillment of our American Revolution [http://www.counterpunch.org/bice01042003.html]
(cricket) On that part of the field behind the batsman's popping crease.
(cricket) Further behind the batsman's popping crease than something else.
(obsolete) Unwilling; averse; reluctant.
* Alexander Pope
Slow to apprehend; having difficulties in learning.
Late or behindhand.
(obsolete) Already past or gone; bygone.
* Byron
(of motion) In the direction towards the back; backwards
Toward, or in, past time or events; ago.
* John Locke
By way of reflection; reflexively.
From a better to a worse state, as from honor to shame, from religion to sin.
* Dryden
The state behind or past.
* Shakespeare
Not direct; roundabout; deceiving; setting a trap; confusing.
* '>citation
As adjectives the difference between backward and indirect
is that backward is pertaining to the direction towards the back while indirect is not direct; roundabout; deceiving; setting a trap; confusing.As an adverb backward
is in the direction towards the back; backwards.As a noun backward
is the state behind or past.backward
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- They left without a backward glance.
- The occasional backward movement of planets is evidence they revolve around the sun.
- Then her eyes, always alert for the affairs of her kitchen, fell on some action of the Chinese cook which aroused her violent disapproval. She turned on him with a torrent of abuse. The Chink was not backward to defend himself, and a very lively quarrel ensued.
- For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves.
- a backward child
- a backward season
- and flies unconscious o'er each backward year
Synonyms
* (in reverse direction) retrograde * (of an undeveloped culture) third world * backwards, fogyish, old-fashioned, antiquated, antediluvian, unprogressive, retrograde, outdated, parachronistic, out of dateAntonyms
* (of an undeveloped culture) forward * (of an outdated thought) progressiveAdverb
(en adverb)- to walk or ride backward'''; to throw the arms '''backward
- some reigns backward
- The work went backward .
Synonyms
* backwardsAntonyms
* forward, forwardsNoun
- In the dark backward and abysm of time.
Anagrams
*indirect
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- Indirect' messages permit communicative contacts when,
without them, the alternatives would be total inhibition, si-
lence, and solitude on the one hand, or, on the other, com-
municative behavior that is direct, offensive, and hence
forbidden. This is a painful choice. In actual practice, neither
alternative is likely to result in the gratification of personal or
sexual needs. In this dilemma, ' indirect communications pro-
vide a useful compromise. As an early move in the dating
game, the young man might invite the young woman to dinner
or to the movies. These communications are polyvalent: both
the invitation and the response to it have several "levels" of
meaning. One is the level of the overt message—that is,
whether they will have dinner together, go to a movie, and so
forth. Another, more covert, level pertains to the question of
sexual activity: acceptance of the dinner invitation implies
that sexual overtures might perhaps follow. Conversely, rejec-
tion of the invitation means not only refusal of companionship
for dinner but also of the possibility of further sexual explora-
tion. There may be still other levels of meaning. For example,
acceptance of the dinner invitation may be interpreted as a
sign of personal or sexual worth and hence grounds for
increased self-esteem, whereas its rejection may mean the
opposite and generate feelings of worthlessness.
