Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Moving backward; retrograde.
  • Of the nature of, or marked by, retrocession, as of territory.

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

  • adjective Tending to retrocede; moving backward.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Bad enough that Tomkin-Sato Industries was losing accounts, pressured no doubt by retrocessive Democrats espousing pernicious isolationist economics with the feverish zeal of born-again Christians, but now the corporate headquarters here in Manhattan was literally under siege by consumers incensed by what placards on the street below misidentified as 'consorting with the enemy'.

    The Kaisho Lustbader, Eric 1983

  • The glittering day-star, having unbarred the portals of light, began to transmit its retrocessive lustre.

    Alonzo and Melissa The Unfeeling Father Daniel Jackson

  • If Rossi was retrocessive, he was at least a constitutional minister, and constitutional means of opposing him were open to all, but Italy understands nothing constitutional; liberty is a fair word and a watchword, nothing more; an idea it is not in the minds of any.

    The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) 1907

  • And so broke out a new Kafir War, a "fitting legacy," says Chase, "of the retrocessive policy of 1836," and, we may add, unfortunately not the last disastrous war to which those words could be applied.

    The Autobiography of Liuetenant-General Sir Harry Smith, Baronet of Aliwal on the Sutlej, G. C. B. 1903

  • If Rossi was retrocessive, he was at least a constitutional minister, and constitutional means of opposing him were open to all, but Italy understands nothing constitutional; liberty is a fair word and a watchword, nothing more; an idea it is not in the minds of any.

    The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Kenyon, Frederic G 1898

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