regression

noun regressions

1. countable, uncountable An action of regressing, a return to a previous state. Few of these groups or communities that are classed as "savage" show no traces of regression from a more advanced cultural stage.

   Similar: deconversion, restitution, step back, regression, restoration, reversion

2. countable, uncountable An action of travelling mentally back in time. I have done past life regressions on my own through self-hypnosis techniques that I learned in Brian Weiss's book Many Lives, Many Masters as well as with past life regression tapes.
3. countable, uncountable A psychotherapeutic method whereby healing is facilitated by inducing the patient to act out behaviour typical of an earlier developmental stage.
4. countable, uncountable An analytic method to measure the association of one or more independent variables with a dependent variable. A social norm hypothesis [of crime] that focuses on the social meaning of order cannot be tested by a single time frame regression of neighborhood disorder and crime. That is simply asking too much of the data.
5. countable, uncountable An equation using specified and associated data for two or more variables such that one variable can be estimated from the remaining variable(s).
6. countable, uncountable The reappearance of a bug in a piece of software that had previously been fixed.
7. countable, uncountable The diminishing of a cellular mass like a tumor, or of an organ size.
8. countable, uncountable The making an exercise less straining to perform by manipulating the details of its performance like loaded weight, range of motion, angle, speed.

Opposite: progression