retrogress
/ˌrɛtrə(ʊ)ˈɡrɛs
/verb [no object]
Go back to an earlier state, typically a worse one: she retrogressed to the starting point of her rehabilitation...
- This proves that her determination to fight AIDS and to seek justice is retrogressing rapidly.
- A lot of what is on our airwaves is not the kind of thing we want to institutionalise, and to not have a code, we think we have retrogressed.
- Europe had retrogressed almost to a primitive way of life, wherein learning was preserved largely in the monasteries.
Origin
Early 19th century: from retro- 'back', on the pattern of the verb progress.