All 3 Uses of
retract
in
Sycamore Row
- Retractable staircase; at least two cluttered rooms chock-full of files; a small kitchen with a broken window, no lock.†
p. 334.7standard suffix: The suffix "-able" means able to be. This is the same pattern you see in words like breakable, understandable, and comfortable.
- The retractable stairs were flimsy and squeaked, but he managed to pull them down with little racket.†
p. 335.1 *
- At 2:30, Erby carefully climbed the steps of the retractable stairs and disappeared into the attic.†
p. 335.8
Definitions:
-
(1)
(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
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Less commonly, in phonetics retract references changing the sound of a vowel by pulling the tongue back.