ɹəˈtɹiːt of amnesia; affecting time immediately preceding trauma moving or directed or tending in a backward direction or contrary to a previous direction get worse or fall back to a previous condition moving from east to west on the celestial sphere; or — for planets — around the sun in a direction opposite to that of the Earth go back over retrograde arguments going from better to worse move back The glacier retrogrades move in a direction contrary to the usual one retrograding planets move backward in an orbit, of celestial bodies