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say it: ree-TREET
retreat is a noun and verb meaning "(military) withdrawal of troops to a more favorable position to escape the enemy's superior forces or after a defeat". It carries 11 recorded senses.
(military) withdrawal of troops to a more favorable position to escape the enemy's superior forces or after a defeat
“the disorderly retreat of French troops”
military
withdrawal for prayer and study and meditation
“the religious retreat is a form of vacation activity”
the act of withdrawing or going backward (especially to escape something hazardous or unpleasant)
make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity
“We'll have to crawfish out from meeting with him”
“He backed out of his earlier promise”
“The aggressive investment company pulled in its horns”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for retreat come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.