retraction

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of retracting or the state of being retracted.
2. n. The act of recanting or disavowing a previously held statement or belief.
3. n. A formal statement of disavowal.
4. n. Something recanted or disavowed.
5. n. The power of drawing back or of being drawn back.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of retracting, or the state of being retracted or drawn back: as, the retraction of a cat's claws.
2. n. A falling back; retreat.
3. n. The act of undoing or unsaying something previously done or said; the act of rescinding or recanting, as previous measures or opinions.
4. n. Synonyms See renounce.

Wiktionary

1. n. An act or instance of retracting.
2. n. A statement printed or broadcast in a public forum which effects the withdrawal of an earlier assertion, and which concedes that the earlier assertion was in error.
3. n. mathematics A continuous function from a topological space onto a subspace which is the identity on that subspace.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of retracting, or drawing back; the state of being retracted.
2. n. The act of withdrawing something advanced, stated, claimed, or done; declaration of change of opinion; recantation.
3. n. The act of retracting or shortening.
4. n. The state or condition of a part when drawn back, or towards the center of the body.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the act of pulling or holding or drawing a part back
2. n. a disavowal or taking back of a previous assertion