Meaning

To pull (something) back or back inside..

Definitions by Sense

1. To pull (something) back or back inside.
2. To avert (one's eyes or a gaze).
3. To pronounce (a sound, especially a vowel) farther to the back of the vocal tract.
4. To hold back (something); to restrain.
5. (intransitive) To draw back; to draw up; to withdraw.
6. An act of retracting or withdrawing (a mistake, a statement, etc.); a retraction.
7. A pulling back, especially (military) of an army or military troops; a pull-back, a retreat; also, a signal for this to be done.
8. (group theory) 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 of G if there exists a surjective homomorphism σ from G to H with σ|_H= operatorname id.

Example Sentences

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".

The bus was stuck at the stop as its wheelchair ramp wouldn’t retract after use.

Muscles retract after amputation.

[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.

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; […]

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.

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

Word Forms

• retracts
• retracting
• retracted
• no-table-tags
• glossary
• retract
• retractest
• retractedst
• retracteth
• -

Synonyms for retract

Antonyms for retract

Related Words

When Should You Use Retract?

Use retract when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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