All 5 Uses of
retract
in
Middlemarch
- Her mind was theoretic, and yearned by its nature after some lofty conception of the world which might frankly include the parish of Tipton and her own rule of conduct there; she was enamoured of intensity and greatness, and rash in embracing whatever seemed to her to have those aspects; likely to seek martyrdom, to make retractations, and then to incur martyrdom after all in a quarter where she had not sought it.†
Chpt 1
- I dare say I shall have to retract.†
Chpt 2 *
- This was a not infrequent procedure with Mr. Vincy—to be rash in jovial assent, and on becoming subsequently conscious that he had been rash, to employ others in making the offensive retractation.†
Chpt 4
- He got away as soon as he could, and Mrs. Garth could only imply some retractation of her severity by saying "God bless you" when she shook hands with him.†
Chpt 6
- The vindictive fire was still burning in him, and he could utter no word of retractation; but it was nevertheless in his mind that having come back to this hearth where he had enjoyed a caressing friendship he had found calamity seated there—he had had suddenly revealed to him a trouble that lay outside the home as well as within it.†
Chpt 8
Definition:
-
(retract) to take back; or to move back or inin various senses, including:
- to take back something previously said -- such as a promise or opinion
- to move back or in -- such as an airplane's landing gear, or pulling your hand back after being burned
- in surgery, the use of a medical instrument to draw skin or an organ back out of the way