Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BE-HIND'-HAND, a. [behind and hand.]

In arrear; in an exhausted state; in a state in which rent or profit has been anticipated, and expenditures precede the receipt of funds to supply them. In popular use, a state of poverty, in which the means of living are not adequate to the end. Also, in a state of backwardness, in which a particular business has been delayed beyond the proper season for performing it; as, he is behindhand in his business. Behindhand with, is behind in progress; not upon equal terms in forwardness; as, to be behindhand with the fashionable world. This word is really an adjective, as it is applied to the person rather than to the verb; but like adrift, aloft, ashamed, and several other words, never precedes the noun. Shakspeare's “behindhand slackness,” therefore, according to present usage, is not a legitimate phrase.