Retracts

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Withdraws a previously made statement or claim ; pulls back or draws inward from a position or place
2. Formally takes back spoken or written words ; moves something backward or inward from an extended state
3. Cancels or disavows a comment or assertion ; draws inward or retreats from an extended or protruded state

Etymology: Retract began life as a physical gesture. Its Latin source, "retrahere," meant to draw or pull something back, and English borrowed the idea in the late Middle Ages in the sense of drawing in or absorbing. A cat's claws retract, a turtle's head retracts, and an aircraft's landing gear retracts into its body, all keeping the original picture of something pulled backward into a shell or housing. The verbal sense of taking back a statement came from a different Latin path. Latin "retractare" meant to handle again, reconsider, or revoke, and it reached English through Middle French "rétracter," which meant to annul or withdraw. So the same family of Latin verbs produced both the bodily sense of drawing in and the mental sense of withdrawing a claim.

Synonyms: withdraws, rescinds, repeals, cancels, annuls

Antonyms: affirms, maintains, upholds, supports, confirms