RETREAT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Retreat

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/ritrˈit/ Listen

noun

Retreat n.

1.

The act of retiring or withdrawing one's self, especially from what is dangerous or disagreeable.

2.

The place to which anyone retires; a place or privacy or safety; a refuge; an asylum. "He built his son a house of pleasure, and spared no cost to make a delicious retreat." "That pleasing shade they sought, a soft retreat From sudden April showers, a shelter from the heat."

3.

(Mil. & Naval.)

(a)

The retiring of an army or body of men from the face of an enemy, or from any ground occupied to a greater distance from the enemy, or from an advanced position.

(b)

The withdrawing of a ship or fleet from an enemy for the purpose of avoiding an engagement or escaping after defeat.

(c)

A signal given in the army or navy, by the beat of a drum or the sounding of trumpet or bugle, at sunset (when the roll is called), or for retiring from action. Note: A retreat is properly an orderly march, in which circumstance it differs from a flight.

4.

(Eccl.)

(a)

A special season of solitude and silence to engage in religious exercises.

(b)

A period of several days of withdrawal from society to a religious house for exclusive occupation in the duties of devotion; as, to appoint or observe a retreat.

Synonyms: Retirement; departure; withdrawment; seclusion; solitude; privacy; asylum; shelter; refuge.

verb

Retreat v. i. (past & past part. retreated; pres. part. retreating) To make a retreat; to retire from any position or place; to withdraw; as, the defeated army retreated from the field. "The rapid currents drive Towards the retreating sea their furious tide."

See images of 'Retreat'

Etymology of 'Retreat'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Retreat" Quotes from Famous Books

... so comely grow, Hid in this silent, dull retreat, Untouched thy honied blossoms blow, ...

— History of American Literature • Reuben Post Halleck

... during which Mounchensey regarded the knight so fiercely, that the latter began to entertain apprehensions for his personal safety, and meditated a precipitate retreat. Yet he did not dare to move, lest the action should bring upon him the hurt he wished to avoid. Thus he remained, like a bird fascinated by the rattlesnake, until the young man, whose power of speech seemed taken from ...

— The Star-Chamber, Volume 1 - An Historical Romance • W. Harrison Ainsworth

... are under the influence of drink," said she. "I need not say that we do not require the services of a medical man in that condition." I did not try to disabuse her of the idea, for really I could see no better explanation; so I beat a retreat in a very demoralised condition. She wrote a letter to my father about it in the evening, and the old man was very angry indeed. As to the mother, she is as staunch as steel, and quite prepared to prove that poor Mrs. A. was a very deep designing ...

— The Stark Munro Letters • J. Stark Munro

... out of the wood, there was danger on every side, and it was light. Fortune favored him, for the enemy had suffered terrible losses and were occupied in beating a hasty retreat, what was left of them. The ground was covered with dead, dying, and wounded. As he rode rapidly to the right he got clear of them; several shots were fired and ...

— The Rider in Khaki - A Novel • Nat Gould

... of his people, uncertain even of the continued favor of the volatile monster who was lounging then in his Caprian retreat, it was with the idea of pleasing the one, of flattering the other, that he had instituted the games. For here in his brand-new Tiberias, a city which he had built in a minute, whose colonnades and porticoes he had bought ready-made in Rome, and had erected by means of that magic ...

— Mary Magdalen • Edgar Saltus

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