retreat
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English retret, borrowed from Old French retrait or retret, from Latin retractus, from retraho. Doublet of retract.
Pronunciation
Audio (US) (file)
- Rhymes: -iːt
Noun
retreat (plural retreats)
- The act of pulling back or withdrawing, as from something dangerous, or unpleasant.
- Shakespeare
- In a retreat he outruns any lackey.
- Shakespeare
- The act of reversing direction and receding from a forward position.
- A peaceful, quiet place affording privacy or security.
- 1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter IV, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented [...] In Three Volumes, volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], OCLC 13623666, phase the first (The Maiden), pages 40–41:
- In a large bedroom upstairs, the window of which was thickly curtained with a great woollen shawl lately discarded by the landlady, Mrs. Rolliver, were gathered on this evening nearly a dozen persons, all seeking vinous bliss; all old inhabitants of the nearer end of Marlott, and frequenters of this retreat.
- 1692, Roger L'Estrange, "Fable 100: An Old Man and a Lion", Fables of Aesop, page 115
- ... he built his son a house of pleasure, on purpose to keep him out of harm's way; and spared neither art nor cost to make it a delicious retreat.
- Dryden
- That pleasing shade they sought, a soft retreat / From sudden April showers, a shelter from the heat.
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- (rare and obsolete, euphemistic) An peaceful, quiet place in which to urinate and defecate: an outhouse; a lavatory.
- A period of retirement, seclusion, or solitude.
- A period of meditation, prayer or study.
- Withdrawal by military force from a dangerous position or from enemy attack.
- A signal for a military withdrawal.
- A bugle call or drumbeat signaling the lowering of the flag at sunset, as on a military base.
- A military ceremony to lower the flag.
- (chess) The move of a piece from a threatened position.
Related terms
Translations
act of pulling back or withdrawing
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quiet place affording privacy
to turn back, retreat — see return
outhouse — see outhouse
lavatory — see toilet
Verb
retreat (third-person singular simple present retreats, present participle retreating, simple past and past participle retreated) (intransitive)
Translations
retreat — see withdraw
to withdraw military forces
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Verb
retreat (third-person singular simple present retreats, present participle retreating, simple past and past participle retreated)
- (transitive) To treat or deal with (a topic) again or differently.
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