beat a retreat

Idioms and Phrases

Also, beat a hasty retreat . Reverse course or withdraw, usually quickly. For example, I really don't want to run into Jeff—let's beat a retreat . This term originally (1300s) referred to the military practice of sounding drums to call back troops. Today it is used only figuratively, as in the example above.

Example Sentences

Quick to beat a retreat when confronted but willing to test new ground when the opportunity arises, Gibson’s Fetchit brilliantly embodies the crazy-as-a-fox interpretation of the character that Power advances.

From Los Angeles Times

Our old pal Holcomb, the crooked cop who worked with Brooks, decides to beat a retreat from the casino-boat business, torching the ship with a Molotov cocktail using his own black tie for a wick.

From New York Times

Along with outsize earnings-day stock losses for AT&T, U.S. equity benchmarks beat a retreat.

From Reuters

Socialism, which was noisily advancing in the Democratic Party, is silently beating a retreat.

From Washington Post

Then a number of white Americans began to fear the very thing Han hopes for, their own transformation in the encounter with the Other, themselves melting, and so they beat a retreat.

From New York Times