noun

• 1A return to a former or less developed state.

  ‘it is easy to blame unrest on economic regression’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Will regression afflict the developing countries as aging weakens the industrial world?’
  • ‘The extent of the economic regression for many countries is astonishing, as is the pace of economic advancement for a small number of countries.’
  • ‘It was murder for the sport and pleasure of the crowd - a regression to the moral sewer into which the Roman Empire fell in the era immediately preceding its collapse.’
  • ‘From a pragmatist point of view, this looks like regression to the Platonist idea that we have responsibilities not only to our fellow humans, but to something non-human.’
  • ‘‘We have been asking ourselves why the UN has been undermined and what should we do to prevent these regressions from continuing,’ she said.’
  • ‘Since the remote office would retain the previous media, regression to an earlier version should also be fairly straightforward.’
  • ‘The 1940s could have represented another stage of regression in this process.’

  Synonyms

  decline, downturn, fall, falling, falling away, slipping, drop, deterioration, worsening, degeneration, dereliction, backsliding, regression, retrogression, decay, descent, sinking, slide, ebb, waning, corruption, debasement, tainting, corrosion, impairment

  1. 1.1A return to an earlier stage of life or a supposed previous life, especially through hypnosis.
     ‘the details recalled by Carol during the regression’
     More example sentences

     • ‘regression therapy’
     • ‘a past-life regression’
     • ‘Many people have experimented with past life regression under hypnosis and claim to recall experiences from previous existences.’
     • ‘Has anyone experienced past-life regression via hypnosis or other means?’
     • ‘It seems likely that most so-called past life regressions induced through hypnosis are confabulations fed by cryptomnesia.’
     • ‘It was as if she had entered regression therapy as an experiment of curiosity and found that terrible, terrible things had happened to her in the past.’
     • ‘Under hypnosis, under regression, people can remember significant events from former lifetimes.’
     • ‘I have no horrific sexual episodes that would only emerge through insidious regression therapy.’
     • ‘Mental or physical illness, therefore, may be considered as instituting regression to an early stage of infantile development.’
     • ‘But from his own experience, Jung learned that regression can act in the service of growth and that psychiatric illness may represent an effort on the part of the psyche to heal itself.’
     • ‘Garda sources have said the information from Niamh, a result of regression therapy, has been ‘sketchy’.’
     • ‘She made the allegations to gardaí after undergoing regression therapy in the mid-1990s in England.’
     • ‘This kind of hangs off the back of our resolution of assuming that people who swear by their console are either 12 years old or in regression therapy.’
     • ‘By going through past life regression with Serena, which sounded a lot like hypnosis, Peter now believes that he was a Nazi interrogator for the Gestapo in a past life.’
     • ‘Not surprisingly, in all regressions ADHD status made a significant contribution to the prediction of psychopathology.’
     • ‘The technique was hit and miss, and past-life experiences were rare, but detractors had insisted that previous regressions influenced the hypnotized by suggesting times and places.’
     • ‘He never thought anymore about the past life regression speech Toshi gave him on the way to L.A. the day after he met Jordan.’
     • ‘She'd never had such a rewarding experience doing a past life regression.’
     Synonyms

     decline, lapse, deterioration, worsening, degeneration, backsliding, recidivism, reversion, regression, retrogression, downturn, fall, falling, falling away, slipping, drop, descent, sinking, slide
  2. 1.2A lessening of the severity of a disease or its symptoms.
     ‘there was 46.7 per cent complete regression in the placebo group’
     More example sentences

     • ‘So, they gave the credit of the natural regression of the disease to the bedrest on which everyone was placed.’
     • ‘The remaining 130 patients had spontaneous regression of disease.’
     • ‘In addition, later biopsies may show disease progression or regression.’
     • ‘We help you identify your risk factors and what you can do to prevent progression of your coronary artery disease or, better yet, promote regression of the disease.’
     • ‘Four weeks later, a computed tomography scan showed spontaneous regression of some of the metastatic lesions.’
     • ‘The management issues are further complicated by the fact that there can be both nonprogression or even regression of disease activity with time.’
     • ‘They also had to experience complete or partial regression of symptoms.’
     • ‘Marked regression of the glandular tissue occurs when nursing ceases.’
     • ‘While antibiotic treatment eradicates the bacteria and promotes tumor regression, the effects of re-infection on disease are more severe.’
     • ‘Use of this technique would be an excellent way to track the progression or regression of emphysema in a noninvasive way.’
     • ‘All of these were included as independent factors in the regression on elevated blood lead levels in children.’
     • ‘It is also important to remember that a melanoma can undergo spontaneous regression and may not be detected, despite a thorough physical examination.’
     • ‘All this indicates that vascular endothelial growth factor may contribute to the establishment, progression, and regression of prostate neoplasia.’
     • ‘He reported total regression of the lesion in eight of the nine cases treated.’
     • ‘Reversibility of end-stage liver disease and its prediction of regression would be welcome signs in the management and treatment of cirrhosis.’
     • ‘Because of concern for sampling error, documentation of regression requires an ample biopsy followed by examination of the entire liver.’
     • ‘The clinical course is unpredictable; spontaneous regression may occur following a few treatments.’
     • ‘The subject of regression of human cirrhosis is extremely important in today's health care environment.’
     • ‘Symptomatic improvements or regression were claimed for five of nine lung cancer cases.’
     • ‘The spontaneous regression of some tumors is usually explained as a phenomenon of the individual's own immune system attacking the tumor burden.’

• 2Statistics
  A measure of the relation between the mean value of one variable (e.g. output) and corresponding values of other variables (e.g. time and cost).

  ‘We present the results of the linear regression analyses as relative risks and 95% confidence intervals.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The dependent variables for the linear regression models are the percentages of expected corn and soybean production forward priced.’
  • ‘Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were the statistical analyses employed in this study.’
  • ‘To investigate this, we used regression to examine the relation between response and the current value of the incentive in US dollars.’
  • ‘These probabilities were designed to provide maximum statistical power for regression analyses with a sample of this total size.’