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to hire; to engage; as, to retain a counselor. A Benedictine convent has now retained the most learned father of their order to write in its defense. Addison.

Retirement; -- mostly used in a jocose or burlesque way. [U.S.] Bartlett. What one of our great men used to call dignified retiracy. C. A. Bristed.

de motion; -- opposed to Ant: progressive. "Progressive and not retrograde." Bacon. It is most retrograde to our desire. Shak.

year the king of Syria will come up against thee. 1 Kings xx. 22. His personal return was most required and necessary. Shak.

To move playfully; to indulge without restraint. "Where joy most revels." Shak.

f the ridiculous, -- the laughable, -- and we have narrowed it so that in common usage it mostly corresponds to "derision", which does indeed involve personal and offensive feelings. Hare. Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne, Yet touched and shamed by ridicule alone. Pope.

Most favorable or convenient; fortunate. The lady has been disappointed on the right side. Spectator.

avel, forming a means of communication between one city, town, or place, and another. The most villainous house in all the London road. Shak.

everal species of Asiatic saxoline birds of the genera Thamnobia and Pratincola. They are mostly black, usually with some white on the wings. -- Magrie robin (Zoöl.), an Asiatic singing bird (Corsycus saularis), having the back, head, neck, and breast black glossed with blue, the wings black, and the belly white. --…

on regia) of Africa, and the rock snake of India (P. molurus). The Australian rock snakes mostly belong to the allied genus Morelia. -- Rock snipe (Zoöl.), the purple sandpiper (Tringa maritima); -- called also rock bird, rock plover, winter snipe. -- Rock soap (Min.), a kind of clay having a smooth, greasy feel, and…

ood fishes of the genus Sebastichthys, as the red rockfish (S. ruber). They are among the most important of California market fishes. Called also rock cod, and garrupa.

Pleasantly mischievous; waggish; arch. The most bewitching leer with her eyes, the most roguish cast. Dryden. -- Rogu"ish*ly, adv. -- Rogu"ish*ness, n.

first strain recurs after each of the other strains. "The Rondo-form was the earliest and most frequent definite mold for musical construction." Grove.

A flower and shrub of any species of the genus Rosa, of which there are many species, mostly found in the morthern hemispere

ndifference; as, to rouse the faculties, passions, or emotions. To rouse up a people, the most phlegmatic of any in Christendom. Atterbury.

lways combined. It is isolated as a soft yellowish white metal, analogous to potassium in most of its properties. Symbol Rb. Atomic weight, 85.2.

ropriety; the rules of cricket. We profess to have embraced a religion which contains the most exact rules for the government of our lives. Tillotson.

to crumple; as, to rumple an apron or a cravat. They would not give a dog's ear of their most rumpled and ragged Scoth paper for twenty of your fairest assignats. Burke.

o make progress; to proceed; to pass. As fast as our time runs, we should be very glad in most part of our lives that it ran much faster. Addison.

The suffix used to form the plural of most words; as in roads, elfs, sides, accounts.