As you might guess, regress is the opposite of progress. So if a disease regresses, that's generally a good thing, but in most other ways we prefer not to regress. If someone's mental state has been improving, we hope that person won't start to regress; and when a nation's promising educational system begins to regress, that's a bad sign for the country's future. Economists often distinguish between a progressive tax and a regressive tax; in a progressive tax, the percentage that goes to taxes gets larger as the amount of money being taxed gets larger, while in a regressive tax the percentage gets smaller.
Verb The patient is regressing to a childlike state. in extreme circumstances, people sometimes regress to the behavior they exhibited in childhood
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Defensively, Wood might as well have not even been on the court, and actually seemed to somehow regress last season from the previous year. Rahat Huq, Chron, 21 June 2022 In theory, demand is easy to forecast: regress demand against income growth and prices, dataseries of which can be downloaded in seconds. Michael Lynch, Forbes, 6 June 2022 Kaepernick's play started to regress in 2014 and he got hurt halfway through the next season and lost his starting job. Josh Dubow, BostonGlobe.com, 25 May 2022 The guys also give a short recap of the Jazz’s regular season — one that saw them regress record-wise. Xoel Cardenas, The Salt Lake Tribune, 14 Apr. 2022 Several months after moving in, Ziona started to regress.New York Times, 29 Mar. 2022 Leto and Hathaway have the slightly unenviable task of playing characters who neither learn nor grow, but rather regress and devolve, so the conflicts between them and their co-stars are often repeated. Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 18 Mar. 2022 But when schools shut down, Michelle O’Neal saw Janae regress in reading and math. Perry Stein, Anchorage Daily News, 15 Mar. 2022 Should a runner take insufficient rest, add too much stress, or a combination of both, their gains will likely stall or regress, ending up with them being burnt out or injured. Rick Prince, Outside Online, 18 July 2019
Verb
John had brought me The Primal Scream, a book by Dr. Arthur Janov, a psychotherapist who treated patients in group therapy by trying to regress them to infancy and scream the pain out. Jann S. Wenner, Rolling Stone, 2 Sep. 2022 Without clear legislative action, the film and television industries will regress into an imbalance of power not seen for decades. Duncan Crabtree-ireland, Variety, 5 Aug. 2022 Then came 2021, where Melton seemed to regress over his 73 1/3 innings.San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 June 2022 Diaz is capable of even more on the contact management front, as his 22.7% liner rate was considerably higher than league average and could well regress toward the mean moving forward. Tony Blengino, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2021 Conversely, when organizations steer clear of major incidents over time, cybersecurity budgets tend to regress to the mean. Jim Deloach, Forbes, 21 June 2022 An athlete that pushes to pain will aerobically regress, even with consistent training, as their base foundation erodes away. Brendan Leonard, Outside Online, 30 Aug. 2020 The aerobic system can even regress, as musculoskeletal output and biomechanical efficiency go down with it. Brendan Leonard, Outside Online, 30 Aug. 2020 Which is to regress in time, to invade childhood or injustice. Ilana Luna, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English regresse, from Anglo-French, from Latin regressus, from regredi to go back, from re- + gradi to go — more at grade entry 1