Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RE-TAL'I-A-TED, pp.

Returned, as like for like.

RE-TAL'I-A-TING, ppr.

Returning, like for like.

RE-TAL-I-A'TION, n.

1. The return of like for like; the doing that to another which he has done to us; requital of evil. – South.
2. In a good sense, return of good for good. God takes what is done to others as done to himself, and by promise obliges himself to full retaliation. – Calamy. [This, according to modern usage, is harsh.]

RE-TAL'I-A-TIVE, a.

Returning like for like.

RE-TAL'I-A-TO-RY, a.

Returning like for like; as, retaliatory measures; retaliatory edicts. – Canning. Walsh.

RE-TARD, v.i.

To stay back. [Not in use.] – Brown.

RE-TARD, v.t. [Fr. retarder; L. retardo; re and tardo, to delay; tardus, slow, late. See Target.]

1. To diminish the velocity of motion; to hinder; to render more slow in progress; as, to retard the march of an army; to retard the motion of a ship. The resistance of air retards the velocity of a cannon-ball. It is opposed to accelerate.
2. To delay; to put off; to render more late; as, to retard the attacks of old age; to retard a rupture between nations. My visit was retarded by business.

RE-TARD-A'TION, n.

The act of abating the velocity of motion; hinderance; the act of delaying; as, the retardation of the motion of a ship; the retardation of hoary hairs. – Bacon.

RE-TARD-ED, pp.

Hindered in motion; delayed.

RE-TARD-ER, n.

One that retards, hinders or delays.

RE-TARD-ING, ppr.

Abating the velocity of motion; hindering; delaying.

RE-TARD-MENT, n.

The act of retarding or delaying. – Cowley.

RETCH, v.i. [Sax. hræcan; Dan. rekker, to reach, to stretch, to retch, to vomit; the same word as reach; the present orthography, retch, being wholly arbitrary. See Reach.]

To make an effort to vomit; to heave; as the stomach; to strain, as in vomiting; properly to reach.

RETCH'LESS, a.

Careless, is not in use. [See Reckless.] – Dryden.

RE-TE'CIOUS, a.

Resembling net-work.

RE-TEC'TION, n. [L. retectus, from retego, to uncover; re and tego, to cover.]

The act of disclosing or producing to view something concealed; as, the retection of the native color of the body. – Boyle.

RE-TENT', n.

That which is retained. – Kirwan.

RE-TEN'TION, n. [Fr. from L. retentio, retineo; re and teneo, to hold.]

1. The act of retaining or keeping.
2. The power of retaining; the faculty of the mind by which it retains ideas. Locke.
3. In medicine, the power of retaining; or that state of contraction in the elastic or muscular parts of the body, by which they hold their proper contents and prevent involuntary evacuations; undue retention of some natural discharge. – Encyc. Coxe.
4. The act of withholding; restraint. – Shak.
5. Custody; confinement. [Not in use.] – Shak.

RE-TEN'TIVE, a. [Fr. retentif.]

Having the power to retain; as, a retentive memory; the retentive faculty; the retentive force of the stomach; a body retentive of heat or moisture.

RE-TEN'TIVE-LY, adv.

In a retentive manner.

RE-TEN'TIVE-NESS, n.

The quality of retention; as, retentiveness of memory.

RE-TEX'TURE, n.

A second or new texture. – Carlisle.

RET'I-A-RY, n.

In entomology, the retiaries are spiders which spin webs to catch their prey.

RET'I-CENCE, or RET'I-CEN-CY, n. [Fr. reticence, from L. reticentia, reticeo; re and taceo, to be silent.]

Concealment by silence. In rhetoric, aposiopesis or suppression; a figure by which a person really speaks of a thing, while he makes a show as if he would say nothing on the subject. – Encyc.

RET'I-CENT, a.

Silent.