RETRACT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Retract

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/ritrˈækt/ Listen

verb

Retract v. t. (past & past part. retracted; pres. part. retracting)

1.

To draw back; to draw up or shorten; as, the cat can retract its claws; to retract a muscle.

2.

To withdraw; to recall; to disavow; to recant; to take back; as, to retract an accusation or an assertion. "I would as freely have retracted this charge of idolatry as I ever made it."

3.

To take back,, as a grant or favor previously bestowed; to revoke. (Obs.)

Synonyms: To recall; withdraw; rescind; revoke; unsay; disavow; recant; abjure; disown.

Retract v. i.

1.

To draw back; to draw up; as, muscles retract after amputation.

2.

To take back what has been said; to withdraw a concession or a declaration. "She will, and she will not; she grants, denies, Consents, retracts, advances, and then files."

noun

Retract n. (Far.) The pricking of a horse's foot in nailing on a shoe.

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Etymology of 'Retract'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Retract" Quotes from Famous Books

... [This possibility has been discussed in the chapter on Affect.] His description seems perhaps to include cases which we would regard as perplexity states or absorbed manias. Activity is reduced, they lie in bed mute, do not answer, may retract shyly at any approach, but on the other hand may not ward off pin pricks. Sometimes there is catalepsy and lack of will, again there may be aimless resistance to external interference. They hold anything ...

— Benign Stupors - A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type • August Hoch

... much grieved to have to retract the permission which in my letter of yesterday I said I would give to Lord Westmorland.[39] When I said so, I had not received the opinion of the Ministers, which I have since done, and this is, I am ...

— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume III (of 3), 1854-1861 • Queen of Great Britain Victoria

... take notice that though I confess that this way removes all notions of a miraculous conduct, yet I do not retract what I have said formerly, that the system of occasional causes does not bring in God acting miraculously. (See M. Leibniz's article in Histoire des Ouvrages des Savants, July 1698.) I am as much persuaded as ever I was that an action cannot be said to ...

— Theodicy - Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil • G. W. Leibniz

... parting drew near, Lord B— became gloomy and discontented, and even entreated me to postpone my resolution; but I told him, that now everything was prepared for my reception, I could not retract without incurring the imputation of folly and extravagance. On the very day of my departure, Mr. B— endeavoured, with all the arguments he could suggest, to dissuade me from my purpose; and I made use of the same answer which had satisfied his friend. ...

— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett

... against my view last night. But they had the same right and liberty to protest that I have. A German physician told me plainly that he thought that within six months I would change my view, and with the new light go over to the position of his native land, and even thought that I might retract all my studies, that are apparently prejudiced in favor of the republic and self-government and the liberty of the press. Well, if I do change my views and am converted to his viewpoint, I certainly will retract my statements. But I think this improbable. The task of converting me should be ...

— The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol. 1, January 9, 1915 - What Americans Say to Europe • Various

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