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to sustain an embankment when it receives a slope steeper than the natural slope; also, a retaining wall. [Written also revêtement (

A pile of arched tiles, used to catch and retain oyster spawn.

A sacristan; also, a person retained in a cathedral to copy out music for the choir, and take care of the books.

In the former feudal system of Japan, the class or a member of the class, of military retainers of the daimios, constituting the gentry or lesser nobility. They possessed power of life and death over the commoners, and wore two swords as their distinguishing mark. Their special rights and privileges were abolished with…

A bandage passing over the shoulder to support it, or to retain another bandage in place.

or the like, cut with a sloping surface and with a check to receive the coping stones and retain them in place.

s, absurdity, or impropriety, as in deeds or manners. Cæsar, by dismissing his guards and retaining his power, committed a dangerous solecism in politics. C. Middleton. The idea of having committed the slightest solecism in politeness was agony to him. Sir W. Scott.

To use frugally or stintingly, as that which is scarce or valuable; to retain or keep unused; to save. "No cost would he spare." Chaucer. [Thou] thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not spare. Milton. He that hath knowledge, spareth his words. Prov. xvii. 27.

emale reproductive organs of insects and many other invertebrates, serving to receive and retain the spermatozoa.

Water retained by an embankment; a pool water. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.] Robert of Brunne.

A form of socialism, esp. advocated in Germany, which, while retaining the right of private property and the institution of the family and other features of the present form of the state, would intervene by various measures intended to give or maintain equality of opportunity, as compulsory state insurance, old-age pen…

f an alloy of iron with an iron carbide. Steel, unlike wrought iron, can be tempered, and retains magnetism. Its malleability decreases, and fusibility increases, with an increase in carbon.

To suffer to retain milk for twenty-four hours or more previous to sale, as cows.

Applied to forms in Anglo-Saxon, etc., which retain the old declensional endings. In the Teutonic languages the vowel stems have held the original endings most firmly, and are called strong; the stems in -n are called weak other constant stems conform, or are irregular. F. A. March. Strong conjugation (Gram.), the conj…

e end of a sawn log or plank which is beyond the place where the saw kerf ends, and which retains the plank in connection with the log, until it is split off. -- Stub twist, material for a gun barrel, made of a spirally welded ribbon of steel and stub iron combined.

. Put roses into a glass with a narrow mouth, stuffing them close together . . . and they retain smell and color. Bacon.

To continue; to retain a certain state. Firm we subsist, yet possible to swerve. Milton.

imp. & p. p. of Sink. Sunk fence, a ditch with a retaining wall, used to divide lands without defacing a landscape; a ha-ha.

r-, bi-, di-, acid, etc. (as peroxide, bicarbonate, disulphide, and acid sulphate), which retain the old meanings of super-, but with sharper definition. Cf. Acid, a., Bi-, Di-, and Per-.

To retain without disclosure; to conceal; not to reveal; to prevent publication of; as, to suppress evidence; to suppress a pamphlet; to suppress the truth. She suppresses the name, and this keeps him in a pleasing suspense. Broome.