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To abate; to withdraw. [Obs.] Foxe.

To revoke; to annul by a subsequent act; to take back; to withdraw; as, to recall words, or a decree. Passed sentence may not be recall'd. Shak.

To withdraw or repudiate formally and publicly (opinions formerly expressed); to contradict, as a former declaration; to take back openly; to retract; to recall. How soon . . . ease would recant Vows made in pain, as violent and void! Milton.

To move back; to retreat; to withdraw. Like the hollow roar Of tides receding from the instituted shore. Dryden. All bodies moved circularly endeavor to recede from the center. Bentley.

ceiver (Physics), a receiver, as that used with the air pump, from which the air has been withdrawn; a vessel the interior of which is a more or less complete vacuum.

A withdrawing or retiring; a moving back; retreat; as, the recess of the tides. Every degree of ignorance being so far a recess and degradation from rationality. South. My recess hath given them confidence that I may be conquered. Eikon Basilike.

Withdrawn; secluded. [R.] "Comfortably recessed from curious impertinents." Miss Edgeworth. Recessed arch (Arch.), one of a series of arches constructed one within another so as to correspond with splayed jambs of a doorway, or the like.

The act of receding or withdrawing, as from a place, a claim, or a demand. South. Mercy may rejoice upon the recessions of justice. Jer. Taylor.

Of or pertaining to recession or withdrawal. Recessional hymn, a hymn sung in a procession returning from the choir to the robing room.

To turn or go back; to withdraw one's self; to retire. [Obs.] "To your bowers recoil." Spenser.

To withdraw from; to leave behind; to desist from; to abandon; to quit; as, to relinquish a pursuit. We ought to relinquish such rites. Hooker. They placed Irish tenants upon the lands relinquished by the English. Sir J. Davies.

To stay behind while others withdraw; to be left after others have been removed or destroyed; to be left after a number or quantity has been subtracted or cut off; to be left as not included or comprised. Gather up the fragments that remain. John vi. 12. Of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are f…

ism which remains in a body that has little coercive force after the magnetizing force is withdrawn, as soft iron; -- called also residual magnetism.

y confinement, violence, danger, or evil; to liberate from actual restraint; to remove or withdraw from a state of exposure to evil; as, to rescue a prisoner from the enemy; to rescue seamen from destruction. Had I been seized by a hungry lion, I would have been a breakfast to the best, Rather than have false Proteus r…

To withdraw; to take away; -- sometimes used reflexively. He . . . retired himself, his wife, and children into a forest. Sir P. Sidney. As when the sun is present all the year, And never doth retire his golden ray. Sir J. Davies.

Withdrawn from active duty or business; as, a retired officer; a retired physician. Retired flank (Fort.), a flank bent inward toward the rear of the work. -- Retired list (Mil. & Naval), a list of officers, who, by reason of advanced age or other disability, are relieved from active service, but still receive a speci…

The act of retiring, or the state of being retired; withdrawal; seclusion; as, the retirement of an officer. O, blest Retirement, friend of life's decline. Goldsmith. Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books. Thomson.

Ti withdraw; to recall; to disavow; to recant; to take back; as, to retract an accusation or an assertion. I would as freely have retracted this charge of idolatry as I ever made it. Bp. Stillingfleet.

The act of withdrawing something advanced, stated, claimed, or done; declaration of change of opinion; recantation. Other men's insatiable desire of revenge hath wholly beguiled both church and state of the benefit of all my either retractions or Eikon Basilike.

That which retracts, or withdraws.