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retreat
[ ri-treet ]
noun
- the forced or strategic withdrawal of an army or an armed force before an enemy, or the withdrawing of a naval force from action.
Antonyms: advance
- the act of withdrawing, as into safety or privacy; retirement; seclusion.
Synonyms: withdrawal, departure
- a place of refuge, seclusion, or privacy:
The library was his retreat.
Synonyms: shelter
- an asylum, as for the insane.
- a retirement or a period of retirement for religious exercises and meditation.
- Military.
- a flag-lowering ceremony held at sunset on a military post.
- the bugle call or drumbeat played at this ceremony.
- the recession of a surface, as a wall or panel, from another surface beside it.
retreat
/ rɪˈtriːt /
verb
- military to withdraw or retire in the face of or from action with an enemy, either due to defeat or in order to adopt a more favourable position
- to retire or withdraw, as to seclusion or shelter
- (of a person's features) to slope back; recede
- tr chess to move (a piece) back
noun
- the act of retreating or withdrawing
- military
- a withdrawal or retirement in the face of the enemy
- a bugle call signifying withdrawal or retirement, esp (formerly) to within a defended fortification
- retirement or seclusion
- a place, such as a sanatorium or monastery, to which one may retire for refuge, quiet, etc
- a period of seclusion, esp for religious contemplation
- an institution, esp a private one, for the care and treatment of people who are mentally ill, infirm, elderly, etc
Other Words From
- re·treatal adjective
- re·treater noun
- re·treative adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of retreat1
Word History and Origins
Origin of retreat1
Idioms and Phrases
- beat a retreat, to withdraw or retreat, especially hurriedly or in disgrace.
More idioms and phrases containing retreat
see beat a retreat .Synonym Study
Example Sentences
On a spring morning in 2002, the Sierra Club’s leaders gathered at the historic Ralston White Retreat, tucked between towering redwood trees on the side of Mount Tamalpais, high above the San Francisco Bay.
Later that summer he led a discussion about population and the border at a board retreat in Michigan, and at the next board meeting, according to the minutes, he continued to press the issue, saying that “immigration drives us to higher fertility.”
Despite being hugely outnumbered, the men held their position for three days, giving their comrades enough time to retreat and successfully defend the city.
Both men were killed in January 1951 as they were forced to retreat by a wave of Chinese soldiers.
In our modern era, when democracy is not just a system of laws or a set of elections but a life practice of people who work together with others to set a collective destiny, it’s crucial that we hold fast to that because the alternative is to retreat, as you noted, into solitude.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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