Definition of backwardness:
ineptitude, retardent, deceleration, subnormality, deliberation, modesty, clumsiness, slowdown, coyness, timidness, awkwardness, maladroitness, coldness, constraint, restraint, unobtrusiveness, ineptness, retiringness, retardant, timidity, lag, unhurriedness, reserve, bashfulness, diffidence, deliberateness, mental retardation, retardation, slowing, shyness, slowness.
Jane knew, both by her own feelings and by all the legends of love from its earliest days, that the moment of parting was generally a crisis in affairs of the heart, and, with a backwardness occasioned by her modesty, had rather avoided than sought an opportunity to favor the colonel's wishes.- "Precaution", James Fenimore Cooper.
- "Primitive Love and Love-Stories", Henry Theophilus Finck.
- "Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens", Albert Bigelow Paine Last Updated: February 20, 2009.