regressing

Verb

regress (third-person singular simple present regresses, present participle regressing, simple past and past participle regressed)

1. (intransitive) To move backwards to an earlier stage; to devolve.

   Synonyms:

   backslide, reconvert, deconvert

   Antonyms:

   advance, proceed, progress

   1. (intransitive) To re-develop behavior one had previously grown out of, particularly a behavior left behind in childhood.
      • Your nightmares stopped when you were eight years old, but after the house burned down, you regressed.
2. (intransitive) To move in the retrograde direction.
3. (intransitive) To reduce in severity or size (as of a tumor), without reaching total remission.
4. (transitive) To perform a regression on an explanatory variable.
   • When we regress Y on X, we use the values of variable X to predict those of Y.
5. (transitive) To interrogate a person in a state of trance about forgotten elements of their past.
   • They regressed me, putting me under hypnosis. Then, through the hypnosis, they found out that our car was abducted right off the road and into a craft.2018, Michael Brein, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Road to Strange: UFOs, Aliens and High Strangeness

See all 9 meanings of regress