Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a retroactive manner; with reversed or retrospective action.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb In a retroactive manner.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb Done after the fact; applying to events that have previously transpired.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb after the fact

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

retroactive +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • I'm not a lawyer, but I think the concept of applying a law retroactively is contrary both to the letter and the spirit of our laws and Constitution.

    Prop 8 Goes Back to Court 2009

  • It didn't always make sense, but you could tell that the writers were sincere about laying the longterm groundwork, or at least successful in retroactively paying off random moments from the earlier films.

    Scott Mendelson: Goodbye John: A Farewell to Saw, as Jigsaw Lays His Last Trap Scott Mendelson 2010

  • Earlier this year, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said he was considering changing terms retroactively — meaning the government could extract better terms on previously assigned leases.

    Big Gas Find Sparks a Frenzy in Israel Charles Levinson 2010

  • For a second day in a row, police bring out the K-9 units to search a heavily wooded area near little Caylee ` s home, police now honing in on specific days just after Caylee last seen, Father ` s Day weekend, attempting to ping or trace mom, Casey ` s, calls retroactively, this while yet another family jailhouse visit is canceled.

    CNN Transcript Aug 12, 2008 2008

  • I told myself that they changed the project name retroactively so they could pretend they saw it coming.

    VinceKeenan.com 2004

  • As Jesse got closer to its being a book and seeing the actual pages before him, he got less enthusiastic about having a book, and I think that's what was it -- it took me a while to figure it out, and I only figured it out retroactively, which is a shame, because we spent a lot of money which we need not necessarily have spent on writers.

    Another Life: A Memoir of Other People 1999

  • Earlier this year, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said he was considering changing terms retroactively-meaning the government could extract better terms on previously assigned leases.

    WSJ.com: What's News US 2010

  • BSG was good, but as pts says, the ending was so bad (after so much buildup) that it kind of retroactively renders the rest of the show mediocre.

    Matthew Yglesias » TV Show of the Decade 2009

  • But it wasn't applied retroactively, meaning anyone sentenced before June 19, 1998 is exempt from truth-in-sentencing.

    Should Convicted Murderers Be Forced To Register Online? Will Guzzardi 2011

  • But it wasn't applied retroactively, meaning anyone sentenced before June 19, 1998 is exempt from truth-in-sentencing.

    Should Convicted Murderers Be Forced To Register Online? Will Guzzardi 2011

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