withdraw

Formswithdraws, withdrawing, withdrew, withdrawn

Pluralwithdraws

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To take money out of a bank account or other financial deposit.

   He went to the ATM to withdraw cash for the weekend.

   They withdrew their entire balance and closed the account.

   Oppositedeposit

   Note

   Banking's version of pulling something back: money comes out of an account, and the direct opposite is deposit. The usual frame is to withdraw a sum from an account, whether at a teller's window, an ATM or by electronic transfer. The matching noun is withdrawal. Adam Smith already uses the verb in 1776, in his discussion of capital.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To cancel or remove something one had previously granted, offered, or permitted.

   The company decided to withdraw its support for the event.

   Officials withdrew the permit when safety concerns emerged.

   Similarrevoke, rescind, cancel, retract

   Oppositegrant

   Note

   Here the thing taken back is a benefit someone has been enjoying, such as mercy, favor, presence or support, and from names who loses it. Coverdale's Bible of 1535 has God promise not to withdraw his mercy from a son, and Hooker in 1597 argues that God cannot withdraw his presence from anything. Keep it apart from taking back words: there the object is a statement, here it is a grant.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To stop taking part in an activity; also, to remove oneself from the company of others or from public life.

   Several countries chose to withdraw from the negotiations.

   After the scandal, the actor withdrew from public life entirely.

   Similarretire, retreat, exit

   Oppositejoin

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To leave a place or someone's presence in order to go to another room or location.

   The host invited everyone to withdraw to the garden after the meal.

   The judge withdrew to her chambers to consider the verdict.

   Similarretire, retreat, adjourn

5. 5
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To retract a remark, accusation, or written statement, declaring that one no longer stands by it.

   She refused to withdraw her accusation despite the pressure.

   The senator withdrew the comment and apologized publicly.

   Similarretract, recant, revoke, disown, disavow

   Note

   The language of formal debate, where a member is called on to withdraw a remark. Dickens parodies the ritual in The Pickwick Papers, where the Chairman is sure "the hon. Pickwickian" will withdraw his insult. Its native synonym is unsay. It differs from taking back a favor or permission in what is taken back: words rather than things, such as charges, accusations and comments.

6. 6
   verbintransitive

   Of troops, to pull out of a battle or out of a position they have been holding.

   Commanders ordered the battalion to withdraw to safer ground.

   The defenders withdrew under heavy fire.

   Similarretreat

   Oppositeadvance

   Note

   The soldiers' own movement, and the intransitive partner of ordering troops out. It is the measured word for leaving a position. Richard Steele, writing as Isaac Bickerstaff in 1709, has whole armies preparing to withdraw into winter-quarters, a routine move rather than a flight. Withdraw suggests a planned disengagement. Retreat is its near synonym, and rout is its disorderly opposite.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To remove someone from a position or situation; specifically, to pull soldiers out of a battle or station.

   Headquarters chose to withdraw the regiment from the front.

   The board withdrew her from the committee pending an inquiry.

   Similarremove, recall

   Oppositedeploy

   Note

   Here someone else does the moving, and in older English that someone could be yourself. Shakespeare's "Withdraw yourselves, and leave us here alone" and Camden's Vortigern, who "had withdrawn himself", show a reflexive use that now sounds archaic. Modern English drops the pronoun, as in leaving a room. Military usage keeps the transitive pattern: a command withdraws troops, while the troops themselves withdraw, or retreat.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To remove something by drawing it back or out, as a needle from a patient's arm or a probe from a sample.

   Slowly withdraw the probe to avoid damaging the sample.

   The surgeon carefully withdrew the needle from the patient's arm.

   Similarremove, extract, retract

   Oppositeinsert

   Note

   The literal sense, carried over from Middle English withdrawen, is the one that involves hands. Dickens's old woman touches her daughter's face and withdraws her hand, and Milton's fair-weather friends withdraw their head in adverse days. The verb conjugates like draw (withdrew, withdrawn), and older verse keeps the form withdrawest, as in Jean Ingelow's 1865 poem. Today it suits careful, deliberate movements: a needle, a probe, a hand.

9. 9
   verbintransitive

   To stop taking an addictive drug or substance, and to go through the effects of stopping.

   Doctors warned that he should not withdraw from the drug without medical supervision.

   She withdrew from the sedatives gradually over several months.

   Note

   The addict's own verb takes no object and often no from, yet it carries the whole ordeal. In Edward St Aubyn's Bad News (1992), Simon tries to rob a bank "while he was withdrawing." Adding from names the substance (withdrew from the sedatives). The person coming off the drug does this; a doctor or clinic that weans them off it does the causative version.

10. 10
    verbintransitive

    To stop talking to or interacting with others and become absorbed in one's own thoughts.

    Teenagers sometimes withdraw when they feel overwhelmed by their problems.

    He withdrew from his friends and spent his evenings alone.

    Similarretreat

Showing meanings only. Show all 20