1701 N. Grew Cosmol. Sacra iv. iii. 204 The Retrogress, was but Ten Degrees.

1794 J. Stewart Good Sense 73 The progress, or retrogress of Truth, depends on its mode of developement.

1814 S. T. Coleridge Let. 13 May (1959) III. 488 After a sad retrogress of nearly twelve years.

1867 H. Spencer Princ. Biol. II. vi. iii. 410 Progress in bulk, complexity, or activity involves retrogress in fertility.

1963 L. S. Dembo Confucian Odes Ezra Pound vi. 100 As we have seen repeatedly in the Chinese view of the kind of history expressed in the Shih, chronological development and the progress or retrogress of moral forces are synonymous.

1812 Philos. Mag. 39 392 The European forehead retrogressed from the ideal ten degrees.

1819 H. Busk Vestriad iv. 21 Night retrogressing from her daily tour.

1861 J. Nichol in Memoir (1896) 32 I am retrogressing into a period which we have closed.

1889 Telegr. Jrnl. & Electr. Rev. 31 May 617/1 The needle moved steadily up to a certain point, when it stopped, retrogressed on the dial a considerable space, stopped again, [etc.].

1972 Great Alaska Earthquake 1964: Geol. (National Res. Council (U.S.) Comm. on Alaska Earthquake) 348/2 The ground behind the East Turnagain lobe..undoubtedly would have retrogressed much farther—possibly as far as Northern Lights Boulevard—if shaking had continued.

1844 Lancet 6 Apr. 61/1 I am happy to say that the pulmonary symptoms are retrogressing.

1895 M. Kaposi et al. Pathol. & Treatm. Dis. Skin 321 They..persist for many years almost unchanged, then retrogress completely with slight desquamation of the epidermis and fading color.

1922 Jrnl. Nerv. & Mental Dis. 56 394 The chancres retrogressed and subsided completely in a few weeks after the animals had been kept at a temperature of 41° C.

1961 Lancet 28 Oct. 954/2 After the radiotherapy, the initial and secondary blood-vessels retrogressed in all cases.

2006 M. S. Campo Papillomavirus Res. 408 Histological findings for papilloma regression were essentially identical with those observed when transplanted tissues retrogress.

1860 W. Carpenter Perils of Policy-holders (ed. 2) 17 It was stated that a meeting was about to be held, to promote the junction of an old office, long retrogressing, and one of a more recent standing.

1882 F. W. Farrar Early Days Christianity I. 439 This was the system..to which some of them were even tempted to apostatise or retrogress!

1906 Mother Earth Mar. 49 The advanced section of the Jewish population..retrogressed from a universal view of things to a philosophy fenced in by boundary lines.

1935 H. Heslop Last Cage Down ii. vi. 213 Trade unions did not seem to change, bless you. They retrogressed gradually.

2006 Washington Post 22 June (Home ed.) a29/2 The..test bed for North Korea's nascent nuclear missile force would be destroyed, and its attempt to retrogress to Cold War threats thwarted.