Syn. — To keep; hold; retrain. See Keep.
Retain
(Re*tain"), v. i.
1. To belong; to pertain. [Obs.]
A somewhat languid relish, retaining to bitterness.
Boyle. 2. To keep; to continue; to remain. [Obs.] Donne.
Retainable
(Re*tain"a*ble) a. Capable of being retained.
Retainal
(Re*tain"al) n. The act of retaining; retention.
Retainer
(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.
5. The act of keeping dependents, or the state of being in dependence. Bacon.
Retainment
(Re*tain"ment) n. The act of retaining; retention. Dr. H. More.
Retake
(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.
Retaker
(Re*tak"er) n. One who takes again what has been taken; a recaptor. Kent.
Retaliate
(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 [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. Retaliate
(Re*tal"i*ate), v. i. To return like for like; specifically, to return evil for evil; as, to retaliate upon
an enemy.
