A rare or archaic term possibly meaning in the direction of opposition or against.
A compound of 'gain-' (meaning 'against') and '-ward' (meaning 'in the direction of'), creating a directional adverb. This appears to be an extremely rare formation from Middle English with minimal usage.
Gainward follows the pattern of 'toward' and 'backward'—the '-ward' suffix attaches to almost anything to show direction! But gainward is so rare it's almost disappeared, while 'toward' is still everywhere.
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