Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Being late or slow, especially in paying a debt.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In the rear; in a backward state; not sufficiently advanced; not equally advanced with some other person or thing: as, behindhand in studies or work.
- Late; delayed beyond the proper time; behind the time set or expected.
- In a state in which expenditure has gone beyond income; in a state in which means are not adequate to the supply of wants; in arrear: as, to be behindhand in one's circumstances; you are behindhand with your payments.
- Underhand; secret; clandestine.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb In arrears financially; in a state where expenditures have exceeded the receipt of funds.
- adverb In a state of backwardness, in respect to what is seasonable or appropriate, or as to what should have been accomplished; not equally forward with some other person or thing; dilatory; backward; late; tardy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
late ,tardy ,overdue - adjective in
debt , or inarrears - adverb
belatedly ,tardily - adverb in debt, or in arrears
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb in debt
- adjective behind schedule
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word behindhand.
Examples
-
These bare questions at once satisfied and silenced the greater number; some, however (like a few in England who are a century behindhand), thought that all such inquiries were useless and impious; and that it was quite sufficient that God had thus made the mountains.
Archive 2009-04-01 AYDIN 2009
-
It was very necessary he should see Mr. Vanderlip, because of the shameless one he would be all of a week behindhand in filling the contract.
-
I may be more than a bit behindhand with balancing bank statements, but the knitting archives are up-to-date.
Archive 2009-09-01 Jean 2009
-
It was very necessary he should see Mr. Vanderlip, because of the shameless one he would be all of a week behindhand in filling the contract.
THE SCORN OF WOMEN 2010
-
I may be more than a bit behindhand with balancing bank statements, but the knitting archives are up-to-date.
Jean's Knitting Jean 2009
-
I have been behindhand with book buying 'cause of moving house, but I will very soon! be buying Magic Under Glass, Guardian of the Dead, and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
What authors can and can't do (more on whitewashed covers) shweta_narayan 2010
-
The month of October had put us a good deal behindhand, but now we were making up the distance we had lost.
-
These bare questions at once satisfied and silenced the greater number; some, however like a few in England who are a century behindhand, thought that all such inquiries were useless and impious; and that it was quite sufficient that God had thus made the mountains.
-
| Reply | Permalink communitychest telegraph libyanfightinggroup takeoffrocket oldtimer behindhand strung unmechanized bostonterrier verticalsurface questafter salverform genusuca activist quaestor ethmoid dipsomaniac highjinks mask crudeoil dashdown archipelago keneltonkesey genussynanceja afghan asarumshuttleworthii run-resistant genustrollius gutless psychiatrist
Your Election Central Guide To Blogs Covering The 2008 Presidential Election 2009
-
I forget now where we were at noon on the second day, and where we ought to have been; but I know that we were scores of miles behindhand, and that our case was growing worse every hour.
The Holly-Tree 2007
Gammerstang commented on the word behindhand
(adverb) - In arrears as to the discharge of one's liabilities; probably formed on the analogy of beforehand.
--Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1888
January 17, 2018