Retreat

How to spell retreat

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce retreat

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does retreat mean?

1. verbTo move back or withdraw from a difficult, dangerous, or uncomfortable position.
2. nounA quiet or secluded place for rest and reflection, or the act of withdrawing from a position.

Retreat in a sentence

• verb

  The troops were ordered to retreat before they were surrounded.

• noun

  The company booked a weekend retreat at a lakeside lodge for the whole team.

• verb

  When the argument grew heated, she chose to retreat to her office.

• noun

  The general called a swift retreat once the position became untenable.

Where does retreat come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin retrahere, formed from re- meaning 'back' and trahere meaning 'to draw or pull', so the literal idea was 'to draw back'. It passed into Old French as retraire, whose past participle gave the noun retret, meaning a withdrawal or a signal to fall back. English borrowed it in the 1300s, first in the military sense of pulling an army back from an enemy, often announced by a drum or bugle call still known as 'the retreat'. From that physical drawing back the word softened into the peaceful modern sense of a quiet place where someone withdraws for rest or reflection. The same trahere root that means 'pull' also gives us 'tractor', 'attract', and 'extract', a useful reminder that the double 'e' in retreat sits in the second syllable, not the first.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• treat (from Latin trahere: to draw or pull)