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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
My heart stopped as the fish owl pivoted and took to the air in retreat, but the weight of the noose carpet held and drew the bird softly back to ground.
Lawful hacking and cyber-espionage have grown enormously as a business over the past decade, with no signs of retreat.
So far, BDG has created these event kits for its virtual yoga retreat in May that was produced for advertiser Nature’s Way, and for its Self-Care Saturday event this past Saturday that was built with advertiser lip filler brand Restylane Kysse.
Bustle planned to host an afternoon-long yoga retreat in Austin, Texas this spring for vitamin and supplement brand Nature’s Way.
The researchers also found that as the soapy film retreats, soap molecules pack together more tightly.
She completed a yoga teacher-training program and, in the spring of 2008, went on a retreat in Peru to study with shamans.
Finally, a squad of reinforcements arrived and they were able to retreat.
Alison, meanwhile, had gone to a yoga retreat with her hippy-dippy mother.
Over 250 were killed before Stirling ordered the final retreat and surrendered himself to the British.
The law professor, Benny Tai, urged the students to “retreat and take the spirit of the Umbrella Movement into the community.”
The engineer officer charged with preparing the line of retreat reported that the one bridge across the Elster was not sufficient.
When this last shred of hope was gone, the Brigadier reluctantly gave the order to retreat.
Orlean was regarded as a fairly attractive woman; but her chin, unlike that of the one before him, was inclined to retreat.
In the retreat across the Niemen he proved himself absolutely incapable of reorganising a beaten force.
At least, his way of retreat would have remained open, and he might have gone, to return another day with force at his heels.
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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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