retreat

Etymology

From Middle English retret, borrowed from Old French retrait or retret, from Latin retractus, from retraho.

Pronunciation

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• Rhymes: -iːt

Noun

retreat (plural retreats)

1. The act of pulling back or withdrawing, as from something dangerous, or unpleasant.
   • Shakespeare

     In a retreat he outruns any lackey.

2. The act of reversing direction and receding from a forward position.
3. A peaceful, quiet place affording privacy or security.
   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles , chapter IV

     In a large bedroom upstairs, the window of which was thickly curtained with a great woollen shawl lately discarded by the landlady, Mrs Rolliver, were gathered on this evening nearly a dozen persons, all seeking beatitude; all old inhabitants of the nearer end of Marlott, and frequenters of this retreat.

   • 1692, Roger L'Estrange, "Fable 100: An Old Man and a Lion", Fables of Aesop, page 115

     ... he built his son a house of pleasure, on purpose to keep him out of harm's way; and spared neither art nor cost to make it a delicious retreat.

   • Dryden

     That pleasing shade they sought, a soft retreat / From sudden April showers, a shelter from the heat.

4. (rare and obsolete, euphemistic) An peaceful, quiet place in which to urinate and defecate: an outhouse; a lavatory.
5. A period of retirement, seclusion, or solitude.
6. A period of meditation, prayer or study.
7. Withdrawal by military force from a dangerous position or from enemy attack.
8. A signal for a military withdrawal.
9. A bugle call or drumbeat signaling the lowering of the flag at sunset, as on a military base.
10. A military ceremony to lower the flag.
11. (chess) The move of a piece from a threatened position.

Verb

retreat (third-person singular simple present retreats, present participle retreating, simple past and past participle retreated)

1. (of military forces) to withdraw from a position, go back.
2. (of a glacier) to shrink back due to generally warmer temperatures.

See also

• religious retreat

Anagrams

• treater, tree rat