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Retreat   /ritrˈit/   Listen
Retreat

noun
1.
(military) withdrawal of troops to a more favorable position to escape the enemy's superior forces or after a defeat.
2.
A place of privacy; a place affording peace and quiet.
3.
(military) a signal to begin a withdrawal from a dangerous position.
4.
(military) a bugle call signaling the lowering of the flag at sunset.
5.
An area where you can be alone.  Synonym: hideaway.
6.
Withdrawal for prayer and study and meditation.  Synonym: retirement.
7.
The act of withdrawing or going backward (especially to escape something hazardous or unpleasant).
verb
(past & past part. retreated; pres. part. retreating)
1.
Pull back or move away or backward.  Synonyms: draw back, move back, pull away, pull back, recede, retire, withdraw.  "The limo pulled away from the curb"
2.
Move away, as for privacy.
3.
Move back.  Synonym: retrograde.
4.
Make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity.  Synonyms: back away, back out, crawfish, crawfish out, pull back, pull in one's horns, withdraw.  "He backed out of his earlier promise" , "The aggressive investment company pulled in its horns"



Related search:
beat a retreat


WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University


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"Retreat" Quotes from Famous Books



... increased forces which have come to me, and the fact that I have your line of retreat securely within my hands, the time seems fitting that I should again demand of your Excellency the surrender of Santiago and your Excellency's army. I am authorized to state that should your Excellency so desire, the Government ...
— The Colored Regulars in the United States Army • T. G. Steward
... increasing in their power over the lives of men; if business methods are becoming less rapacious; if employers and employed are more and more inclined to be friends rather than foes; if politicians are growing conscientious and unselfish; if the enemies of society are in retreat before the forces of decency and order; if amusements are becoming purer and more rational; if polite society is getting to be simpler in its tastes and less ostentatious in its manners and less extravagant in its expenditures; if poverty and crime ...
— The Church and Modern Life • Washington Gladden
... adieu, but he had none to offer. He saw no more clearly now into the truth than he had done at the beginning of the interview, but he had in a measure hardened himself by the spoken definition of his own attitude, and, partly because he could not as yet retreat from it, he permitted her to go without another word She floated away in the alternate soft splendour of the moon and the deep shadow of the overhanging boughs, and he watched her gloomily until her figure disappeared at the end of the avenue. He stood ...
— Despair's Last Journey • David Christie Murray
... late to retreat. I promised myself I would not return without a fight, and I intend to keep that promise. We will carry out the plan ourselves, as much of it at least as we can. I trust Putnam got Griffin off, and that his skirmishers may draw out Von Donop. But be that as it may, ...
— For Love of Country - A Story of Land and Sea in the Days of the Revolution • Cyrus Townsend Brady
... chance whatever for Yearlings Pratt and Judson to retreat unseen. The door across the hall had been left open, and the tac. would be sure to detect ...
— Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point • H. Irving Hancock


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