RETRACT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does retract mean? 

• RETRACT (verb)
  The verb RETRACT has 4 senses:

1. formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure

2. pull away from a source of disgust or fear

3. use a surgical instrument to hold open (the edges of a wound or an organ)

4. pull inward or towards a center

  Familiarity information: RETRACT used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RETRACT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they retract    ... he / she / it retracts   
Past simple: retracted   
Past participle: retracted   
-ing form: retracting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

abjure; forswear; recant; resile; retract

Context example:

She abjured her beliefs

Hypernyms (to "retract" is one way to...):

disown; renounce; repudiate (cast off)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

retraction (a disavowal or taking back of a previous assertion)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Pull away from a source of disgust or fear

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

retract; shrink back

Hypernyms (to "retract" is one way to...):

cringe; flinch; funk; quail; recoil; shrink; squinch; wince (draw back, as with fear or pain)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Use a surgical instrument to hold open (the edges of a wound or an organ)

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

draw back; pull back; retract

Hypernyms (to "retract" is one way to...):

pull (apply force so as to cause motion towards the source of the motion)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

retractor (surgical instrument that holds back the edges of a surgical incision)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Pull inward or towards a center

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

draw in; retract

Context example:

The cat retracted his claws

Hypernyms (to "retract" is one way to...):

attract; draw; draw in; pull; pull in (direct toward itself or oneself by means of some psychological power or physical attributes)

Verb group:

attract; draw; draw in; pull; pull in (direct toward itself or oneself by means of some psychological power or physical attributes)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "retract"):

introvert; invaginate (fold inwards)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

retraction (the act of pulling or holding or drawing a part back)

 Context examples 

I believe he has retracted since.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I hope you do not retract what you then said.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Of what he had then written, nothing was to be retracted or qualified.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

However, the permission was given, and was never retracted; for when the month was out, Peggotty and I were ready to depart.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A muscle that inserts directly onto the capsule of a joint, acting to retract the capsule in certain movements.

(Articular Muscle, NCI Thesaurus)

She had that moment settled with Miss Tilney to take their proposed walk tomorrow; it was quite determined, and she would not, upon any account, retract.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

A muscle extending from the hyoid bone to the side of the tongue that retracts and pulls the side of the tongue downward.

(Hyoglossus Muscle, NCI Thesaurus)

It seems to me that the GSM industry, which is a major industry, behaves a bit like tobacco companies 20 years ago in the United States, when they were denying that cigarettes could pose a threat, and they then had to retract.

(Health threats caused by mobile phone radiation, EUROPARL TV)

No; you must excuse me; I cannot retract my consent; it is too far settled, everybody would be so disappointed, Tom would be quite angry; and if we are so very nice, we shall never act anything.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Emma was not required, by any subsequent discovery, to retract her ill opinion of Mrs. Elton.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)