English-German translations for backwards

• rückwärts
  Wir müssen vorwärts gehen, nicht rückwärts wie ein Krebs. We need to move forwards, not backwards like crabs.
  Diese Fraktion ist anscheinend rückwärts gegangen. That is one group that seems to have gone backwards.
  Sie müssen rückwärts zählen, um diesen Schwellenwert von einem Prozent zu erreichen. You have to count backwards in order to reach this 1% threshold.
• Achtern der
• nach hinten
  Gut, ich will nicht nach hinten sehen, sondern nach vorne. Well, I want to look not backwards but forwards.
  Denn ich muss Ihnen sagen: Das, was ich da gehört habe, ist ja ein Schritt nach hinten. I must say that what has been said represents a step backwards.
  Die Union sollte keinen einzigen Schritt nach hinten machen, was ihre Strategie zum Klimawandel angeht. The Union should not take a single step backwards in terms of its policy on climate change.
• rücklings

Definition of backwards

• Oriented toward the back
• Reversed
• Behind current trends or technology
• Clumsy, inept, or inefficient, especially in learning
• Toward the back
• In the opposite direction to usual
• In a manner such that the back precedes the front
• towards the past; ago

Examples

• The battleship had three backwards guns at the stern, in addition to the primary complement
• The backwards lettering on emergency vehicles makes it possible to read in the rear-view mirror.
• Modern medicine regards the use of leeches as a backwards practice.
• He was a very backwards scholar, but he was a marvel on the football field.
• The cabinet toppled over backwards.
• Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards.—Søren Kierkegaard
• The clock did not work because the battery was inserted backwards.
• The tour guide walked backwards while droning on to the bored seniors.

Related words

• ass-backwards
• backwards and forwards
• backwards with the greyhounds
• bend over backwards
• know backwards
• fall backwards
• move backwards