Meaning

• Oriented toward the back.

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

• Reversed.

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

• Behind current trends or technology.

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

• Clumsy, inept, or inefficient, especially in learning.

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