retire

Formsretires, retiring, retired

Pluralretires

1. 1
   verbintransitive

   To permanently stop working, typically because of old age or illness.

   Most teachers in the district retire around the age of sixty.

   He retired from the firm after forty years of service.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To permanently stop competing in a sport, especially as a professional athlete.

   She retired from competitive swimming following the Olympics.

   Many gymnasts retire while still in their twenties.

   Similarquit

   Note

   Athletes retire from something, and that something can be narrow: a club, a league, or a single format, as when a cricketer retires from test cricket and leaves other formats open. Unlike the batsman's mid-innings retirement, this one ends an active career, not a single turn at the crease. The construction is almost always retire from plus the sport or competition.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To go to bed, especially for the night.

   After the long journey, they retired early.

   She likes to retire with a good book.

   Oppositerise

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To go back or withdraw, especially from public view, going into privacy.

   The author retired from public life after his last novel.

   Guests may retire to the lounge after the meal.

   Similarwithdraw, retreat

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To permanently stop using or producing something.

   The airline retired its oldest jets last year.

   Engineers plan to retire the aging reactor by 2030.

   Similardecommission, discontinue, scrap

   Note

   Machines and names both get retired. Ships and trains are retired when they leave service, and officials may retire a hurricane's name once a storm has been so deadly or destructive that reusing it would be insensitive. The object is usually something with a working life, so the word quietly gives it the dignity of a career ending.

6. 6
   verbintransitive

   To fall back from a fight or from danger, or to go off to a place of safety or leisure.

   Under heavy fire, the regiment began to retire toward the river.

   Each summer they retired to a quiet lakeside cottage.

   Similarretreat, withdraw

   Oppositeadvance

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To cause someone to retire; specifically, to designate a person as no longer qualified for active service and place them on the retired list.

   The board retired the general with full honors.

   Regulations allow the service to retire personnel deemed medically unfit.

   Note

   Boards and services retire officers onto the retired list, but a warmer use has grown up beside the official one. A successful child "retires" a parent by earning enough that the parent can stop working. Richard Gere, in Parade in 1988, planned to retire his father. Brendan I. Koerner quotes a man in 2023 who had "just retired my parents." It is the transitive partner of stopping work for good.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To withdraw something from circulation or the market, especially by paying off a debt or bond.

   The treasury retired the bonds at maturity.

   Companies often retire shares to boost their value.

   Similarredeem

   Oppositeissue

9. 9
   verbreflexivetransitive

   To withdraw something or take it away.

   He retired his offer once the terms changed.

   The steward moved to retire the soiled linens.

   Similarwithdraw, remove

   Note

   The oldest shape of the word shows here: Middle French retirer, from re- "back" and tirer "draw, pull," so "draw back." Used transitively, it takes the thing withdrawn as its object, often the self. Philip Sidney has a man who "retired himself, his wife, and children into a forest," and John Davies in 1592 writes of a sun that never doth retire his golden ray. The reflexive pattern leads to withdrawing into privacy, where one simply retires.

10. 10
    verbtransitive

    In baseball, to put out a batter or runner, or to end the opposing team's turn at bat by doing so.

    The closer retired the final batter to seal the win.

    A pitcher who can retire dangerous hitters keeps the game close.

    Note

    Here the verb turns transitive and belongs to the fielding side: a pitcher or fielder retires a batter, and the third out retires the side. Scorekeeping shorthand often follows, as in "Jones retired Smith 6-3," with the numbers recording which fielders handled the ball. Cricket runs the other way, because there a batsman retires himself.

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