re·treat

(rĭ-trēt′)

a. The act or process of moving back or away, especially from something hazardous, formidable, or unpleasant: made a retreat from hectic city life to the country.

b. Withdrawal of a military force from a dangerous position or from an enemy attack.

c. The process of receding from a position or of becoming smaller: glaciers in retreat from positions of advancement.

d. The process of changing or undergoing change in one's thinking or in a position: a leader's retreat from political radicalism.

e. A decline in value: a retreat in housing prices.

2. A place affording peace, quiet, privacy, or security. See Synonyms at shelter.

a. A period of seclusion, retirement, or solitude.

b. A period of group withdrawal for prayer, meditation, or study: a religious retreat.

a. The signal for a military withdrawal: Sound the retreat!

b. A bugle call or drumbeat signaling the lowering of the flag at sunset, as on a military base.

c. The military ceremony of lowering the flag.

v. re·treat·ed, re·treat·ing, re·treats

v.intr.

1. To move backward or away; withdraw or retire: retreated to his study. See Synonyms at recede¹.

2. To make a military retreat.

3. To move back from a position of advancement or become smaller: land that emerged when the oceans retreated.

4. To change or undergo change in one's thinking or in a position: They retreated from their demands.

5. To decline in value: Stocks retreated in morning trading.

v.tr. Games

To move (a chess piece) back.

[Middle English retret, from Old French retrait, retret, from past participle of retraire, retrere, to draw back, from Latin retrahere; see retract.]

re·treat′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

retreater

(rɪˈtriːtə)

1. a person who retreats

2. a defective maximum-minimum thermometer in which the mercury can flow too freely

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

References in periodicals archive

After The Alaskan Retreater's Notebook came out the publisher expressed an interest in this book, so I finally got it done.

Ray Ordorica Books

The Retreater theme addresses consumers' growing need to regularly withdraw from the pressures, chaos and over-stimulation that so often come with daily life, and create hygge--a popular Danish concept that embodies all things comforting and cozy.

The Art of Color Trends Forecasting: Dee Schlotter, senior color marketing manager, PPG's architectural coatings business

The one category you don't want to find yourself in is that of a retreater, Schlossberg says.

Management & operations: what's your retirement persona?

Despite its quiet setting, the monastery attracts an array of characters, including a reformed cat killer, a headphone-stealing fellow retreater, an orphaned violinist, and an arrogant almost-PhD.

The Monks and Me

Though Dewey may overemphasize the degree to which this novel marks a break (James Axton is also a failure at engaging, a retreater, a would-be ascetic), Dewey reads this underappreciated novel assiduously, aptly pointing out its relative warmth and concluding with a powerful summation of its pivotal role in the DeLillo oeuvre and its embrace of narrative as an aesthetic system.

DeLillo's evolution