RETIRE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Retire

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/rɪtˈaɪr/ /ritˈaɪr/ /rˌitˈaɪər/ Listen

verb

Retire v. t. (past & past part. retired; pres. part. retiring)

To withdraw; to take away; sometimes used reflexively. "He... retired himself, his wife, and children into a forest." "As when the sun is present all the year, And never doth retire his golden ray."

To withdraw from circulation, or from the market; to take up and pay; as, to retire bonds; to retire a note.

To cause to retire; specifically, to designate as no longer qualified for active service; to place on the retired list; as, to retire a military or naval officer.

Retire v. i.

To go back or return; to draw back or away; to keep aloof; to withdraw or retreat, as from observation; to go into privacy; as, to retire to his home; to retire from the world, or from notice. "To Una back he cast him to retire." "The mind contracts herself, and shrinketh in, And to herself she gladly doth retire."

To retreat from action or danger; to withdraw for safety or pleasure; as, to retire from battle. "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die."

To withdraw from a public station, or from business; as, having made a large fortune, he retired. "And from Britannia's public posts retire."

To recede; to fall or bend back; as, the shore of the sea retires in bays and gulfs.

To go to bed; as, he usually retires early.

Synonyms: To withdraw; leave; depart; secede; recede; retreat; retrocede.

noun

Retire n.

The act of retiring, or the state of being retired; also, a place to which one retires. (Obs.) "The battle and the retire of the English succors." "(Eve) discover'd soon the place of her retire."

(Mil.) A call sounded on a bugle, announcing to skirmishers that they are to retire, or fall back.

See images of 'Retire'

Etymology of 'Retire'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Retire" Quotes from Famous Books

... is ever fraught with loss of dignity. But there were those volunteers that M. de Cussy was enrolling to strengthen the hand of the King's General. Their presence might admit anon of the reopening of this question. Meanwhile he must retire ...

— Captain Blood • Rafael Sabatini

... individual and new. The exciting tension and lively stimulus may please in their way, yet the badge of the accidental and unmeaning adheres to the thing. It is a trivial experience and one quickly forgotten. The shock is superficial and were it repeated would soon fatigue. We should retire with relief into darkness and silence, to our ...

— The Life of Reason • George Santayana

... visitings of this light called up a train of horrors in my mind; destruction impended over this spot; the voice which I had lately heard had warned me to retire, and had menaced me with the fate of my father if I refused. I was desirous, but unable to obey; these gleams were such as preluded the stroke by which he fell; the hour, perhaps, was the same. I shuddered as if I had beheld suspended ...

— Stories by Modern American Authors • Julian Hawthorne

... forever with the elements. To be a brother to the insensible rock And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould. Yet not to thine eternal resting-place Shalt thou retire alone—nor couldst thou wish Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down With patriarchs of the infant world—with kings, The powerful of the earth—the wise, the good, Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past, All in ...

— Graded Memory Selections • Various

... including Kashmir if tradition may be believed, but his chief residence was Srirangam. Towards the end of the eleventh century however, the hostility of the Chola King Kulottunga, who was an intolerant Sivaite, forced him to retire to Mysore. Here he was protected by King Vittala Deva whom he converted from Jainism and on the death of Kulottunga in 1118 he returned to Srirangam where he ended his days. In the temple there his tomb and a shrine where ...

— Hinduism And Buddhism, Volume II. (of 3) - An Historical Sketch • Charles Eliot

More quotes...