Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RET'I-CLE, n. [L. reticulum; from rete, a net.]

1. A small net.
2. A contrivance to measure the quantity of an eclipse; a kind of micrometer. – Ash.

RE-TIC'U-LAR, a. [supra.]

Having the form of a net or of net-work; formed with interstices; as, a reticular body or membrane. – Encyc. In anatomy, the reticular body, or rete mucosum, is the layer of the skin, intermediate between the cutis and the cuticle; the principal seat of color in man; the reticular membrane is the same as the cellular membrane. – Parr.

RE-TIC'U-LATE, or RE-TIC'U-LA-TED, a. [L. reticulatus, from rete, a net.]

Netted; resembling net-work; having distinct veins crossing like net-work; as, a reticulate corol or petal. – Martyn.

RE-TIC-U-LA'TION, n.

Net-work; organization of substances resembling a net. – Darwin.

RET'I-CULE, n.¹ [supra.]

A little bag of net-work; a lady's work bag, or a little bag to be carried in the hand.

RET'I-CULE, n.²

In a telescope, a net-work dividing the field of view into a series of small squares.

RET'I-FORM, a. [L. retiformis; rete, a net, and forma, form.]

Having the form of a net in texture; composed of crossing lines and interstices; as the retiform coat of the eye. – Ray.

RET'I-NA, n. [L. from rete, a net.]

In anatomy, one of the coats of the eye, being an expansion of the optic nerve over the bottom of the eye, where the sense of vision is first received. – Encyc.

RET-IN-AS-PHALT', n.

A bituminous or resinous substance of a yellowish or reddish brown color, found in irregular pieces very light and shining. [See Retinite.]

RET-IN-AS-PHALT'UM, n.

A substance found in Bovey coal, consisting of resin and asphaltum.

RET'IN-ITE, n. [Gr. ῥητινη, resin.]

Pitchstone; stone of fusible pitch, of a resinous appearance, compact, brown, reddish, gray, yellowish, blackish or bluish, rarely homogeneous, and often containing crystals of feldspar and scales of mica. It is the pechstein porphyry or obsidian of the Germans. It is called also retinasphalt. – Ure. Cyc.

RET'IN-OID, a.¹ [Gr. ῥητινη, a resin, and ειδος, likeness.]

Resin-like, or resiniform; resembling a resin without being such.

RET'I-NOID, a.²

Like a resin. [1841 Addenda only.]

RET'IN-UE, n. [Fr. retenue, from retenir, to retain, L. retineo; re and teneo, to hold.]

The attendants of a prince or distinguished personage, chiefly on a journey or an excursion; a train of persons. – Dryden.

RET'I-PED, n. [L. rete and pes.]

A bird, the skin of whose tarsi is divided into small polygonal scales. Brande.

RET-I-RADE', n. [Fr. from retirer, to withdraw; Sp. retirada, a retreat.]

In fortification, a kind of retrenchment in the body of a bastion or other work, which is to be disputed inch by inch, after the defenses are dismantled. It usually consists of two faces, which make a re-entering angle. – Encyc.

RE-TIRE', n.

1. Retreat; recession; a withdrawing. [Obs.] – Shak. Bacon.
2. Retirement; place of privacy. [Obs.] – Milton.

RE-TIRE', v.i. [Fr. retirer; re and tirer, to draw; It. ritirare; Sp. retirar.]

1. To withdraw; to retreat; to go from company or from a public place into privacy; as, to retire from the world; to retire from notice.
2. To retreat from action or danger; as, to retire from battle.
3. To withdraw from a public station. General Washington in 1796 retired to private life.
4. To break up, as a company or assembly. The company retired at eleven o'clock.
5. To depart or withdraw for safety or for pleasure. Men retire from the town in summer for health and pleasure. But in South Carolina, the planters retire from their estates to Charleston, or to an isle near the town.
6. To recede; to fall back. The shore of the sea retires in bays and gulfs.

RE-TIRE', v.t.

To withdraw; to take away. He retired himself, his wife and children into a forest. – Sidney. As when the sun is present an the year, / And never doth retire his golden ray. – Davies. [This transitive use of retire is now obsolete.]

RE-TIR'ED, a.

1. Secluded from much society or from public notice; private. He lives a retired life; he has a retired situation.
2. Secret; private; as, retired speculations.
3. Withdrawn. – Locke.

RE-TIR'ED-LY, adv.

In solitude or privacy. – Sherwood.

RE-TIR'ED-NESS, n.

A state of retirement; solitude, privacy or secrecy. – Atterbury.

RE-TIRE'MENT, n.

1. The act of withdrawing from company or from public notice or station. – Milton.
2. The state of being withdrawn; as, the retirement of the mind from the senses. – Locke.
3. Private abode; habitation secluded from much society or from public life. Caprea had been the retirement of Augustus. – Addison. Retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. – Washington.
4. Private way of life. Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books, / Progressive virtue and approving heaven. – Thomson.

RE-TIR'ING, ppr.

1. Withdrawing; retreating; going into seclusion or solitude.
2. adj. Reserved; not forward or obtrusive; as, retiring modesty; retiring manners.

RE-TOLD', v. [pret. and pp. of Retell;]

as, a story retold.