Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Directed or turned backward or downward.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In botany and zoology, turned back; directed backward; retral.
- In ornithology, turned in a direction the opposite of the usual one, without reference to any other line or plane; antrorse. See the quotation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Bent backward or downward.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Bent
backward ordownward .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective bent or curved backward or downward
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Latin retrōrsus, from retrōversus : retrō-, retro- + versus, past participle of vertere, to turn; see wer- in Indo-European roots.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Latin retrorsus, retroversus; retro back + vertere, versum, to turn. Compare retrovert.
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Examples
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The fish you really have to watch out for is the candirú, a toothpick-shaped catfish that wriggles into bodily orifices, throws out retrorse spines, and can be removed only through surgery.
The Gasping Forest Shoumatoff, Alex 2007
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