Re*tain"a*ble (?), a. Capable of being retained.
Re*tain"al (?), n. The act of retaining; retention.
Re*tain"er (?), n. 1. One who, or that which, retains.
2. One who is retained or kept in service; an attendant; an adherent; a
hanger-on.
3. Hence, a servant, not a domestic, but occasionally attending and
wearing his master's livery. Cowell.
4. (Law) (a) The act of a client by which he engages a lawyer or
counselor to manage his cause. (b) The act of withholding what one has
in his hands by virtue of some right. (c) A fee paid to engage a lawyer
or counselor to maintain a cause, or to prevent his being employed by
the opposing party in the case; -- called also retaining fee. Bouvier.
Blackstone.
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5. The act of keeping dependents, or the state of being in dependence.
Bacon.
Re*tain"ment (?), n. The act of retaining; retention. Dr. H. More.
Re*take" (?), v. t. 1. To take or receive again.
2. To take from a captor; to recapture; as, to retake a ship or
prisoners.
Re*tak"er (?), n. One who takes again what has been taken; a recaptor.
Kent.
Re*tal"i*ate (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Retaliated (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Retaliating.] [L. retaliatus, p. p. of retaliare to retaliate; pref.
re- re- + a word akin to talio talion, retaliation. Cf. Talion.] To
return the like for; to repay or requite by an act of the same kind; to
return evil for (evil). [Now seldom used except in a bad sense.]
One ambassador sent word to the duke's son that his visit should be
retaliated.
Sir T. Herbert.
It is unlucky to be obliged to retaliate the injuries of authors,
whose works are so soon forgotten that we are in danger of
appearing the first aggressors.
Swift.
Re*tal"i*ate, v. i. To return like for like; specifically, to return
evil for evil; as, to retaliate upon an enemy.
Re*tal`i*a"tion (?), n. The act of retaliating, or of returning like
for like; retribution; now, specifically, the return of evil for evil;
e.g., an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
God . . . takes what is done to others as done to himself, and by
promise obloges himself to full retaliation.
Calamy.
Syn. -- Requital; reprisal; retribution; punishment.
Re*tal"i*a*tive (?), a. Same as Retaliatory.
Re*tal"i*a*to*ry (?), a. Tending to, or involving, retaliation;
retaliative; as retaliatory measures.
Re*tard" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Retarded; p. pr. & vb. n. Retarding.]
[L. retardare, retardatum; pref. re- re- + tardare to make slow, to
delay, fr. tardus slow: cf. F. retarder. See Tardy.] 1. To keep
delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progress; to render
more slow in progress; to impede; to hinder; as, to retard the march of
an army; to retard the motion of a ship; -- opposed to accelerate.
2. To put off; to postpone; as, to retard the attacks of old age; to
retard a rupture between nations.
Syn. -- To impede; hinder; obstruct; detain; delay; procrastinate;
postpone; defer.
Re*tard", v. i. To stay back. [Obs.] Sir. T. Browne.
Re*tard", n. Retardation; delay.
Retard, or Age, of the tide, the interval between the transit of the
moon at which a tide originates and the appearance of the tide itself.
It is found, in general, that any particular tide is not principally
due to the moon's transit immediately proceeding, but to a transit
which has occured some time before, and which is said to correspond to
it. The retard of the tide is thus distinguished from the lunitidal
interval. See under Retardation. Ham. Nav. Encyc.
Re`tar*da"tion (?), n. [L. retardatio: cf. F. retardation.] 1. The act
of retarding; hindrance; the act of delaying; as, the retardation of
the motion of a ship; -- opposed to acceleration.
The retardations of our fluent motion.
De Quinsey.