retract

UK /ɹɪˈtɹækt/ US /ɹɪˈtɹækt/
verb 10noun 5

Definitions

verb

1

To pull (something) back or back inside.

An airplane retracts its wheels for flight.

The collector shoes are automatically retracted when the electric handle is moved from "service off" to "lock off".

2

To pull (something) back or back inside.

A cat can retract its claws.

3

To avert (one's eyes or a gaze).

4

To pronounce (a sound, especially a vowel) farther to the back of the vocal tract.

5

To hold back (something); to restrain.

noun

1

An act of retracting or withdrawing (a mistake, a statement, etc.); a retraction.

[T]hey began to finde fault with Poeſie, […] ſaying, that metaphors æmigmaticall, and covert words, yea and the ambiguities which Poetry uſeth, were but ſhifts, retracts, and evaſions to hide and cover all, whenſoever the events fell not out accordingly.

2

A pulling back, especially (military) of an army or military troops; a pull-back, a retreat; also, a signal for this to be done.

Theſe Græcians alſo that made the retract, aduiſed Darius [III] to retire his Armie into the plaine of Meſopotamia, to the end that Alexander being entred into thoſe large fields and great Champions, he might haue inuironed the Macedonians on all ſides with his multitude; […]

3

A subgroup of a given group such that there is a surjective endomorphism from the ambient group to the subgroup which is constant on the subgroup; in this case the subgroup is a retract of the ambient group. In symbols: H in G is a retract

4

The target of a retraction.

5

Synonym of retreat (“an act of accidentally injuring a horse's foot by incorrectly nailing it during shoeing”).

verb

1

To cancel or take back (something, such as an edict or a favour or grant previously bestowed); to rescind, to revoke.

Fill'd with the Satisfaction of their own diſcerning Faculties, they [natural history writers] paſs Judgment at firſt ſight; write on, and are above being ever brought to retract it.

2

To break or fail to keep (a promise, etc.); to renege.

3

To take back or withdraw (something that has been said or written); to disavow, to repudiate.

I retract all the accusations I made about the senator and sincerely hope he won’t sue me.

And yet this Pope himſelf, not many years after, retracted this Bull; […]

4

Originally in chess and now in other games as well: to take back or undo (a move); specifically (card games) to take back or withdraw (a card which has been played).

5

To decline or fail to do something promised; to break one's word.

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