retired

1. 1
   adjective

   Having permanently left paid work, especially after reaching the age for a pension.

   The retired teacher volunteers at the local library twice a week.

   After forty years on the force, she is finally retired.

   Oppositeworking, employed

2. 2
   adjective

   Taken out of active service or no longer being produced.

   The team raised the retired jersey number to the rafters.

   Several retired locomotives are preserved at the railway museum.

   Similardiscontinued, obsolete

   Oppositeactive

   Note

   Sports give this sense its best-known use. A retired number is one taken out of use for good, usually as an honor. Jackie Robinson's 42 became one across every major league team. Outside the stadium, the same word covers machines and models taken out of service, like a retired locomotive kept in a museum. It suggests a deliberate withdrawal rather than simple wearing out.

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of retire.

   He retired after thirty years at the factory.

   The general had retired before the war broke out.

   Note

   One spelling serves both the past tense and the participle: she retired in May; she has retired. The verb is also transitive, so the participle appears in passives: the model was retired last year. After be, it can blur with the adjective for pensioners. He is retired describes a state, while he was retired by the board describes an action done to him.

4. 4
   adjective

   Withdrawn from society; private and quiet, as a way of life or activity.

   He spent his later years in retired contemplation, seeing few visitors.

   Their retired existence in the countryside suited her love of solitude.

   Similarsecluded, reclusive, solitary, private, quiet

   Oppositesociable, public

   Note

   Here the participle of retire has settled into an adjective. A retired life is one that has drawn back from company, and the word describes a degree of withdrawal, so it compares with more and most: a more retired existence, the most retired of habits. Keep it apart from the pension meaning, because a retired lifestyle need not belong to anyone who has stopped working.

5. 5
   adjective

   Of a place, far from settled areas and not easily seen or reached; secluded.

   The monastery stood in a retired corner of the hills, miles from any road.

   They built their home in a retired spot far from the highway.

   Similarsecluded, remote, isolated, out-of-the-way

   Note

   Saki uses it in 1910 for a niche in a side aisle of an old cathedral. A retired spot need not be far off in the wilds. It only has to be tucked back out of the way, away from where people pass. The word suits small, sheltered places as well as remote ones, which sets it a little apart from plain remote.

Showing meanings only. Show all 5