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  1. retract love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To take back; disavow: refused to retract the statement.
  2. v. To draw back or in: a plane retracting its landing gear. See Synonyms at recede1.
  3. v. Linguistics To utter (a sound) with the tongue drawn back.
  4. v. Linguistics To draw back (the tongue).
  5. v. To take something back or disavow it.
  6. v. To draw back.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To draw back; draw in: sometimes opposed to protract or protrude: as, a cat retracts her claws.
  2. To withdraw; remove.
  3. To take back; undo; recall; recant: as, to retract an assertion or an accusation.
  4. To contract; lessen in length; shorten. Synonyms Recant, Revoke, etc. (see renounce), disown, withdraw. See list under abjure.
  5. To draw or shrink back; draw in; recede.
  6. To undo or unsay what has been done or said before; recall or take back a declaration or a concession; recant.
  7. n. A falling back; a retreat.
  8. n. A retractation; recantation.
  9. n. In farriery, the prick of a horse's foot in nailing a shoe, requiring the nail to be withdrawn.

Wiktionary

  1. v. transitive To pull back inside (for example, an airplane retracting its wheels while flying).
  2. v. transitive To take back or withdraw something one has said.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To draw back; to draw up or shorten
  2. v. To withdraw; to recall; to disavow; to recant; to take back.
  3. v. obsolete To take back,, as a grant or favor previously bestowed; to revoke.
  4. v. To draw back; to draw up.
  5. v. To take back what has been said; to withdraw a concession or a declaration.
  6. n. (Far.) The pricking of a horse's foot in nailing on a shoe.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. pull inward or towards a center
  2. v. formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure
  3. v. pull away from a source of disgust or fear
  4. v. use a surgical instrument to hold open (the edges of a wound or an organ)

Etymologies

  1. From Latin retractum, past participle of retrahere. (Wiktionary)
  2. Latin retractāre, to revoke, frequentative of retrahere, to draw back : re-, re- + trahere, to draw. V., tr., senses 2 and 3, and v., intr., sense 2, Middle English retracten, from Old French retracter, from Latin retractus, past participle of retrahere. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (10)

Words with the same meaning

  1. revoke
  2. disown
  1. recant
  2. recall
  1. unsay
  2. withdraw
  1. abjure
  2. disavow
  1. rescind
  2. take back

hypernyms (12)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. repudiate
  2. disown
  1. renounce
  2. flinch
  1. funk
  2. cringe
  1. squinch
  2. quail
  1. shrink
  2. recoil
  1. wince
  2. pull

rhymes (47)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. abstract
  2. act
  3. attacked
  4. attract
  5. backed
  6. blacked
  7. compact
  8. contract
  9. counterattacked
  1. cracked
  2. detract
  3. diffract
  4. distract
  5. enact
  6. exact
  7. extract
  8. fact
  9. hacked
  1. impact
  2. inexact
  3. intact
  4. interact
  5. jacked
  6. lacked
  7. overreact
  8. packed
  9. pact
  1. protract
  2. racked
  3. react
  4. redact
  5. reenact
  6. repacked
  7. sacked
  8. slacked
  9. smacked
  1. snacked
  2. stacked
  3. subtract
  4. tacked
  5. tact
  6. tracked
  7. tract
  8. transact
  9. unpacked
  1. whacked
  2. wracked

reverse dictionary (36)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. abjure
  2. retract
  3. pedicle-muscle
  4. unkiss
  5. unlook
  6. unpredict
  7. unpromise
  1. unsay
  2. unsing
  3. unspeak
  4. unswear
  5. unthink
  6. unvote
  7. perignathic
  1. retractive
  2. retroduct
  3. retrolingual
  4. unwish
  5. sheathe
  6. utility knife
  7. irrevocable
  1. to call back
  2. to eat one's words
  3. retractate
  4. eat
  5. swallow
  6. withdraw
  7. take
  1. opelet
  2. protract
  3. recant
  4. revel
  5. unnotify
  6. annul
  7. crispation
  1. retreat

tags (2)

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  1. words from latin
  1. cvccvcc

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  • 14ShimAlissa . To keep you cool, your scalp will retract any hair growing out of it. (Your retracted mane also serves as a sponge that soaks up unhappy memories.) Jul 11, 2011

  • mollusque The market for tract housing is retracting. See Free Associations. Feb 5, 2008

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‘retract’ has been looked up 2237 times, loved by 1 person, added to 25 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 9.