retain

ruh-TAYN/ɹəˈteɪn/UKri-TAYN/ɹɪˈteɪn/

22 meanings of retain

1
verbtransitive
To keep something in place or in use rather than removing or abolishing it; to preserve it.
Lawmakers voted to retain the existing tax exemption.
The renovated theater retained its ornate 1920s ceiling.
Similarkeep, preserve, maintain, conserve
Oppositeabolish, remove
Note
Keeping what could have been done away with, so its natural opposites are abolish and put away. Thomas Cranmer, writing "Of Ceremonies" in 1549, explains why some customs "be put awaye, and some be retayned and kept still". The object is typically an institution, custom, law or part of a building, and the verb is at home in the passive: the walls are retained, the exemption was retained.
2
verbtransitive
To keep something in one's possession or control; to continue to have it.
The champion retained her title with a narrow victory.
Sellers often retain a copy of the signed contract for their records.
Similarkeep, hold, maintain, preserve
Oppositelose, surrender
Note
Possession carried forward through time, which is why still so often keeps it company. In John Milton's masque, the river nymph made a goddess "still she retaines / Her maiden gentleness". What is kept need not be held in the hand: Sir Roger Acton "retainst the name / Of knight", much as champions now retain titles and rights. Keep is the everyday word, and retain is the formal one.
3
verbtransitive
To keep something in the mind; to remember or be able to recall it.
Students retain new vocabulary better when they use it in conversation.
Decades later, she still retained every detail of that summer.
Similarremember, recall, memorize
Oppositeforget
4
verbtransitive
To hold something securely in place, preventing it from becoming detached or separated.
A locking pin retains the trailer hitch in position.
These straps retain the cargo during sudden stops.
Similarhold, secure, fasten
Oppositerelease
5
verbtransitive
To engage a lawyer or other professional by paying a retainer, an advance fee that reserves their services for when they are needed.
The startup retained outside counsel before signing the merger agreement.
Wealthy clients retain attorneys on an ongoing basis, paying whether or not work arises.
Similarengage, hire
Note
Law puts a contract behind the word: the fee paid is the retainer, and the lawyer who accepts it is retained, often in a particular case. In Dickens's Pickwick, Serjeant Snubbin asks, "I am retained in that, am I?" John Arbuthnot's satire mocks a client who retains his lawyers by the year, so a fresh lawsuit costs little more. In English practice it is the barrister who is retained this way.
6
verbtransitive
To engage someone's services; to hire someone, especially on a temporary basis.
The committee retained an independent auditor to review the accounts.
Production companies retain local crews for each filming location.
Similarhire, engage, employ, commission
7
verbtransitive
Of an object or material, to hold or keep something inside itself; to contain.
The insulated mug retains heat for hours.
Even after washing, the fibers retain traces of the dye.
Similarhold, keep, contain, preserve
Oppositelose, release
8
verbtransitive
To hold someone or something back; to check, restrain, or prevent, often followed by from.
A heavy gate retained the crowd from pushing onto the field.
Guardrails retain vehicles from sliding off the mountain road.
Similarrestrain, keep, prevent, stop
9
verbtransitive
To keep someone in one's employ or service; also, mostly in former times, to keep a person on as a follower or dependent.
The firm retained its senior engineers through the downturn by offering bonuses.
Companies that retain experienced employees save heavily on training costs.
Similarkeep, employ
Oppositedismiss, fire
10
verbreflexivetransitive
To control or restrain oneself; to exercise self-control.
Furious at the verdict, he barely retained himself in the courtroom.
Diplomats must retain themselves even when negotiations turn hostile.
Similarrestrain, control, contain

11
verbtransitive
To hold a pupil back in the same grade instead of allowing advancement to the next class or year.
After much discussion, the district retained two struggling readers in first grade.
Some states retain third graders who do not pass the reading test.
Oppositepromote
Note
A schoolroom use in which the pupil is the object and the school or district does the retaining. It is most often passive with in: a child is retained in first grade, or kept back, the plainer phrase families tend to use. The practice itself is called grade retention, and debate over it is usually framed against promoting the pupil anyway.
12
verbtransitive
To fail to expel fluid, tissue, or another substance, especially urine, from the body or one of its organs.
Patients with heart failure often retain fluid in their legs and lungs.
After the delivery, her uterus retained fragments of placental tissue.
Oppositeexpel
Note
The substance is the object here: patients retain fluid, retain water, retain urine, and an organ can retain tissue it should have expelled. Clinicians report the finding with the noun retention, as in urinary retention or fluid retention. When the substance goes unnamed and the body or organ is the subject, the verb becomes the absolute clinical use.
13
verbintransitive
To keep something in one's control or possession; to continue having it.
Pressed by reporters about the title fight, the champion vowed to retain.
In Friday's vote, both incumbent judges retained comfortably.
Oppositelose
Note
The absolute use, where the thing kept goes unsaid because context supplies it. William Blackstone's Commentaries uses it as a term of estate law: an executor of his own wrong "is not allowed to retain", that is, to keep the goods of the deceased against creditors. Today the same pattern turns up when champions or incumbents retain. Elsewhere, name the object.
14
verbintransitive
To be able to hold on to things in one's mind; to make use of one's memory.
Students retain better after a full night's sleep.
He listens attentively in lectures but retains poorly without written notes.
Similarremember
Oppositeforget
Note
Memory as a capacity rather than one thing remembered, so no object follows. Older writers liked it as an infinitive after memory. Hobbes wants a judge with "memory to retain, digest and apply", and Thomas Gray gives humankind "sense to feel, with memory to retain". Current use pairs it with adverbs: retains well, retains poorly. For a particular fact or tune, see remembering something specific.
15
verbintransitive
Of a body or organ: to hold back tissue or a substance rather than expelling it.
If the bladder retains after surgery, a catheter may be necessary.
Patients on this drug may retain, so doctors monitor fluid balance closely.
Note
Clinical shorthand that drops the object. The bladder retains, or the patient may retain, and the listener supplies urine or fluid. The pattern belongs to medical talk and charting. In general prose, retain without an object sounds unfinished, so name the substance, as in retaining fluid or urine.
16
verbarchaictransitive
To keep someone in custody; to prevent a person from leaving a place.
The magistrate retained the suspect until the next assizes.
There vvith the Nymph his mother, like her thrall; / VVho ſore againſt his vvill did him retaine, / For feare of perill, vvhich to him mote fall, / Through his too ventrous provveſſe proued ouer all.
1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
Note
An older custody sense, now archaic. In Spenser's Faerie Queene a nymph "sore against his will did him retaine" to keep her son from danger, so the keeping could be protective rather than penal. For custody in modern writing, use detain. A reader today will hear retaining a person first as hiring them or keeping them on staff.
17
verbtransitive
In Christian practice, to declare that a person's sin is not forgiven.
The confessor retained the penitent's sin until he made restitution.
Church teaching holds that priests may forgive sins or retain them.
Oppositeremit
Note
Church language with a scriptural source. William Tyndale's Newe Testament of 1526 renders John 20:23 as "whosoevers synnes ye retayne, they are retayned", paired with remit. The two verbs travel as a set: remit is forgiving, and retain is withholding forgiveness. Joseph Hall's Meditations and Vowes (1605) plays on both, vowing to retain wrongs only so far as God need not retain his.
18
verbobsoleteintransitive
To hold oneself back from an action; to refrain from doing something.
She could scarcely retain from laughing at the ambassador's wig.
[T]hey can ſcarce retaine from burſting foorth / In plaine reuolt.
1600, John Marston, Antonios Reuenge. The Second Part.
Note
A lost way of holding oneself back, built like refrain and followed by from. In John Marston's Antonio's Revenge, "they can scarce retaine from bursting foorth / In plaine reuolt." The sense is obsolete, so modern prose needs refrain from or hold back from. The idea survives in retaining oneself, where the reflexive pronoun is spelled out.
19
verbobsoleteintransitive
To be a dependent or follower of someone, especially as a member of an important person's household.
He retained to Lord Hastings and wore his livery at court.
VVhen ſoone thoſe other Rils to Seuerne vvhich retaine, / And 'tended not on Teame, thus of themſelues do ſhovve / The ſeruice that to her they abſolutely ovve.
1612, Michael Drayton, “The Eight Song”
Note
Service seen from the follower's side, as an intransitive verb construed with to or unto. The 1549 English of Erasmus's paraphrase of Acts says of one man that he "was reteynyng to Sergius Paulus", the proconsul. Thomas Browne writes of those who "retaine unto the Church of God". The sense is obsolete. The noun retainer keeps it alive, and the transitive sense tells the relationship from the lord's side.
20
verbobsoleteintransitive
To continue to exist or stay in a place; to remain as before.
Something of the old man's sternness retained in his son.
Such beliefs retain among the hill folk, though the towns have forgotten them.
Note
A rare and now obsolete use in which retain simply means to stay or persist, with no object. John Donne writes that impure man can no more "retaine and move / In that pure region of a worthy love" than earthly substance can rise into fire. Modern English says remain or continue here. Without an object, retain today reads as keeping a title or seat.
21
nounobsolete
The act of holding on to something, or the thing so held; retention or possession.
The deed confirmed the widow's retain of the manor for her lifetime.
By the retain of the port, the crown kept its grip on the western trade.
Note
A noun with its own history. Middle English retein meant possession of a sum of money, and the verb later reinforced the word. It is obsolete, and retention now does its work. Retainment and retaining were the alternatives, and retainal was rarer still. In modern writing, use retention.
22
nounobsolete
A group of attendants or servants, especially of someone considered important; a retinue.
The cardinal traveled with a retain of forty horsemen and clerks.
His retain crowded the inn's yard, demanding stabling and supper.
Similarretinue
Note
The household word, now obsolete: a lord's retain was his train of attendants, what we call a retinue. It shares its origin with the obsolete noun of keeping and belongs with the old idea of following a great lord. Use retinue in modern writing, because a cardinal's retain of forty horsemen would puzzle most readers.

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–20

This comes from Late Middle English reteinen, borrowed via Anglo-Norman and Old French retenir from Vulgar Latin *retinīre and Latin retinēre ('to keep or hold back, detain, retain'). The Latin verb was formed from the prefix re- ('again') plus teneō ('to grasp, hold'), which ultimately traces to Proto-Indo-European *ten- ('to extend, stretch').

Meanings 21–22

This is derived partly from Middle English retein or retain ('possession of a sum of money'), and partly from the verb retain (see etymology 1).