Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RE-TRIEV-A-BLE-NESS, n.

State of being retrievable.

RE-TRIEV-A-BLY, adv.

In a retrievable manner.

RE-TRIEV-AL, or RE-TRIEVE-MENT, n.

Act of retrieving.

RE-TRIEVE, n.

A seeking again; a discovery. [Not in use.] – B. Jonson.

RE-TRIEVE, v.t. [Fr. retrouver, to find again; It. ritrovare. See Trover.]

1. To recover; to restore from loss or injury to a former good state; as, to retrieve the credit of a nation; to retrieve one's character; to retrieve a decayed fortune.
2. To repair. Accept my sorrow, and retrieve my fall. – Prior.
3. To regain. With late repentance now they would retrieve / The bodies they forsook, and wish to live. – Dryden.
4. To recall; to bring back; as, to retrieve men from their cold trivial conceits. – Berkeley.

RE-TRIEV-ED, pp.

Recovered; repaired; regained; recalled.

RE-TRIEV-ING, ppr.

Recovering; repairing; recalling.

RE-TRIM', v.t.

To trim again.

RET-RO-ACT', v.i.

To act in opposition or in return.

RET-RO-AC'TION, n. [L. retro, backward, and action.]

1. Action returned, or action backward.
2. Operation on something past or preceding.

RET-RO-AC'TIVE, a. [Fr. retroactif; L. retro, backward, and active.]

Operating by returned action; affecting what is past; retrospective. – Beddoes. A retroactive law or statute, is one which operates to affect, make criminal or punishable, acts done prior to the passing of the law.

RET-RO-ACT'IVE-LY, adv.

By returned action or operation; by operating on something past. – Wheaton.

RET-RO-CEDE, v.t. [L. retro, back, and cedo, to give; Fr. retroceder.]

To cede or grant back; as, to retrocede a territory to a former proprietor.

RET-RO-CED-ED, pp.

Granted back.

RET-RO-CED'ENT, a.

An epithet applied to diseases which move from one part of the body to another, as the gout.

RET-RO-CED-ING, ppr.

Ceding back.

RET-RO-CES'SION, n.

1. A ceding or granting back to a former proprietor. – American State Papers.
2. The act of going back. – More.

RET-RO-DUC'TION, n. [L. retroduco; retro, back, and duco, to lead.]

A leading or bringing back.

RET'RO-FLEX, a. [L. retro, back, and flexus, bent.]

In botany, bent this way and that, or in different directions, usually in a distorted manner; as, a retroflex branch. – Martyn.

RET'RO-FRACT, or RET-RO-FRAC'TED, a. [L. retro, back, and fractus, broken.]

Reduced to hang down as it were by force so as to appear as if broken; as, a retrofract peduncle. – Martyn. Bent back toward its insertion, as if it were broken. – Lee.

RET-RO-GRA-DA'TION, n. [Fr. See Retrograde.]

1. The act of moving backward; applied to the apparent motion of the planets.
2. A moving backward; decline in excellence. – N. Chipman.

RET'RO-GRADE, a. [Fr. from L. retrogradior; retro, backward, and gradior, to go.]

1. Going or moving backward. – Bacon.
2. In astronomy, apparently moving backward and contrary to the succession of the signs, as a planet. – Harris.
3. Declining from a better to a worse state.

RET'RO-GRADE, v.i. [Fr. retrograder; L. retrogradior; retro and gradior, to go.]

To go or move backward. – Bacon.

RET-RO-GRES'SION, n.

The act of going backward. – Brown.

RET-RO-GRESS'IVE, a.

Going or moving backward; declining from a more perfect to a less perfect state. Geography is at times retrogressive. – Pinkerton.