verb (used without object)
- to go backward into an earlier and usually worse condition: to retrogress to infantilism.
- to move backward.
verb (intr)
- to go back to an earlier, esp worse, condition; degenerate or deteriorate
- to move backwards; recede
- biology to develop characteristics or features of lower or simpler organisms; degenerate
“move backward; deteriorate,” 1816, probably a back-formation from retrogression. Related: Retrogressed; retrogressing.