Withdrawn

How to spell withdrawn

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce withdrawn

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does withdrawn mean?

1. verbHaving been taken back, removed, or pulled out, as the past participle of withdraw.
2. adjectiveEmotionally distant, shy, or unwilling to communicate with others.

Withdrawn in a sentence

• verb

  The company has withdrawn its offer after the negotiations collapsed.

• adjective

  After the loss he became quiet and withdrawn, rarely leaving his flat.

• verb

  By Friday she had withdrawn most of her savings from the account.

• adjective

  The normally cheerful child seemed withdrawn and anxious at the new school.

Where does withdrawn come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past participle of the verb 'withdraw', which is a native English compound. The first element 'with' here does not carry its modern meaning of 'together with'; in Old English 'wið' meant 'against' or 'away from', a sense preserved in words like 'withstand' and 'withhold'. The second element comes from the Old English 'dragan', meaning 'to pull or draw', the same root behind the modern verb 'draw'. Joined together in early Middle English, 'withdraw' literally meant to pull oneself or something away, and by the 1300s it covered both physical retreat and the removal of money or support. The adjective use, describing a person who is emotionally distant or unsociable, grew out of the idea of having pulled back from others and became common in the nineteenth century.

How the word is built

• with- (back, away)
• draw (to pull)
• -n (past participle suffix)