Both Uses of
retention
in
Twelfth Night
- There is no woman's sides Can bide the beating of so strong a passion As love doth give my heart: no woman's heart So big to hold so much; they lack retention.†
Scene 2.4 *
- A witchcraft drew me hither: That most ingrateful boy there, by your side From the rude sea's enraged and foamy mouth Did I redeem; a wreck past hope he was: His life I gave him, and did thereto add My love, without retention or restraint, All his in dedication: for his sake, Did I expose myself, pure for his love, Into the danger of this adverse town; Drew to defend him when he was beset: Where being apprehended, his false cunning,— Not meaning to partake with me in danger,— Taught him to face me out of his acquaintance, And grew a twenty-years-removed thing While one would wink; denied me mine own purse, Which I had recommended to his use Not half an hour before.†
Scene 5.1
Definition:
to keep or continue to have
The exact meaning of retention depends upon its context. For example:
- a student's retention -- what a student remembers (holds onto in memory)
- freshman retention -- the number of freshman who return to the school the next year
- employee retention -- how successful a firm is at keeping employees over the long term
- water retention -- the holding of water in the body -- as in "a salt-free diet to reduce water retention"
- retention bonus -- a cash bonus paid to encourage a good employee to stay with a firm
- retention basin -- a ponding area -- typically intended to hold stormwater