Retroact

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To act retrospectively or in opposition

    "In their eyes the past was good or bad for itself, and the present good or bad for itself, and an evil past could no more shadow a virtuous present than a virtuous present could retroact to brighten or redeem an ugly past."

  2. 2
    to be retrospective.
  3. 3
    To apply (a law) retroactively to situations that predate the enactment of the law.

    "Sec. 4. The effectivity of this Act shall retroact to January 1, 2001."

Example

More examples

"In their eyes the past was good or bad for itself, and the present good or bad for itself, and an evil past could no more shadow a virtuous present than a virtuous present could retroact to brighten or redeem an ugly past."

Etymology

From retro- + act.

Related phrases

in return

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.