# retaining

Pronunciation: say "ri-TAY-ning" /ɹɪˈteɪnɪŋ/

## Verb

1. Present participle of retain. — present participle and gerund of retain
   - Simple: Present participle of retain. Use this form for an action happening now or as the name of the action.
   - _The new policy aims at retaining skilled staff during the downturn._
   - _Retaining moisture all summer, the clay soil stayed fertile through the drought._

## Adjective

2. Serving to hold back or keep something in place, as a retaining wall holds back earth or water where the ground level drops.
   - Simple: Used to describe something that holds back or keeps another thing in place.
   - _Engineers inspected the retaining wall after heavy rains loosened the slope above it._
   - _A concrete retaining structure held the terraced fields firmly in place._

## Noun

3. The act by which something or someone is held or kept on; a retention.
   - Simple: The act of keeping someone or something instead of letting them go.
   - _The retaining of legal counsel proved essential to the firm's defense._
   - _The soil's retaining of water depends largely on how much clay it contains._

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/retaining (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).