Toward vs Backward - What's the difference?
toward | backward |
In the direction of.
:
*(Bible), (w) xxiv. 1
*:He set his face toward the wilderness.
*
*:Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
In relation to (someone or something).
:
*(Bible), (w)
*:His eye shall be evil toward his brother.
For the purpose of attaining (an aim).
:
Located close to; near (a time or place).
:
*(Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
*:I am toward nine years older since I left you.
(obsolete) Future; to come.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.iv:
(dated) Approaching, coming near; impending; present, at hand.
* Shakespeare
* 1843 , '', book 2, ch. XV, ''Practical — Devotional
Yielding, pliant; docile; ready or apt to learn; not froward.
(obsolete, or, archaic) Promising, likely; froward.
(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Pertaining to a thought or value that is considered outdated.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
In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between toward and backward
is that toward is (obsolete) future; to come while backward is (obsolete) already past or gone; bygone.As adjectives the difference between toward and backward
is that toward is (obsolete) future; to come while backward is (of motion) pertaining to the direction towards the back.As a preposition toward
is in the direction of.As an adverb backward is
(of motion) in the direction towards the back; backwards.As a noun backward is
the state behind or past.toward
English
Preposition
(en-prep) (mainly in American English)Synonyms
* towardsUsage notes
* Although some have tried to discern a semantic distinction between the words (term) and (towards), the difference is merely dialectal. (term) is more common in American English and (towards) is the predominant form in British English.Adjective
(-)- ere that wished day his beame disclosd, / He either enuying my toward good, / Or of himselfe to treason ill disposd / One day vnto me came in friendly mood [...].
- Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward ?
- On the morrow […] orders the Cellerarius to send off his carpenters to demolish the said structure brevi manu , and lay up the wood in safe keeping. Old Dean Herbert, hearing what was toward , comes tottering along hither, to plead humbly for himself and his mill.
- Why, that is spoken like a toward prince. ? Shakespeare.
Statistics
* American Englishbackward
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.
