Retreating

How to spell retreating

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce retreating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does retreating mean?

1. verbWithdrawing or moving back, especially away from danger, conflict, or an advancing force.

Retreating in a sentence

• The soldiers were retreating from the burning village under cover of darkness.

• Scientists measured how fast the glacier was retreating each summer.

Where does retreating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the verb 'retreat', which English borrowed in the 1300s from the Old French word 'retret', a noun meaning a withdrawal or pulling back. The French form traces directly to the Latin verb 'retrahere', built from 're-' meaning 'back' and 'trahere' meaning 'to pull or draw'. The literal sense, then, is to draw oneself back, and that image of pulling away from danger or advance still sits at the heart of the modern meaning. The same Latin 'trahere' gives us a whole family of relatives, including 'tractor', 'attract', and 'subtract', all of which involve pulling or drawing in some way. Adding the '-ing' suffix simply marks the ongoing action; note that the spelling keeps a single 't' before '-ing', since 'treat' already ends in a single 't' preceded by a long vowel.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• treat (to draw, from Latin trahere 'to pull, draw')
• -ing (present participle)