Retiring

How to spell retiring

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce retiring

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does retiring mean?

1. adjectiveNaturally shy, modest, and inclined to avoid company or attention.
2. verbThe act of giving up one's work or withdrawing from active life, as the present participle of retire.

Retiring in a sentence

• adjective

  His quiet, retiring manner made colleagues underestimate his ambition.

• verb

  He is retiring from the firm after thirty years of service.

• adjective

  She was too retiring to enjoy the spotlight at the awards dinner.

• verb

  She plans on retiring early once the mortgage is paid off.

Where does retiring come from?

Language of origin: French

The word descends from the French verb retirer, which literally meant 'to draw back' or 'to pull back', built from the prefix re- ('back') and tirer ('to draw or pull'). English adopted retire in the 1500s, first in the military sense of pulling troops back from an enemy, and then in the broader sense of withdrawing from company, from public life, or from one's work. The present participle 'retiring' came to do double duty: it describes the act of withdrawing, but it also became an adjective for a person who naturally draws back from attention, that is, someone shy and reserved. The single t and the -iring ending are the usual spelling stumbles, since writers sometimes want to double the r or drop the silent e from the base verb. The same tirer root also lies behind 'tirade', originally a long drawn-out speech.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• tire (from Old French tirer: to draw, pull)
• -ing (participle/adjective suffix)