[syn: reticent, self-effacing, retiring]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Retire \Re*tire"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Retired; p. pr. & vb.
n. Retiring.] [F. retirer; pref. re- re- + tirer to draw.
See Tirade.]
1. To withdraw; to take away; -- sometimes used reflexively.
[1913 Webster]
He . . . retired himself, his wife, and children
into a forest. --Sir P.
Sidney.
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As when the sun is present all the year,
And never doth retire his golden ray. --Sir J.
Davies.
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2. To withdraw from circulation, or from the market; to take
up and pay; as, to retire bonds; to retire a note.
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3. To cause to retire; specifically, to designate as no
longer qualified for active service; to place on the
retired list; as, to retire a military or naval officer.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Retiring \Re*tir"ing\, a.
1. Reserved; shy; not forward or obtrusive; as, retiring
modesty; retiring manners.
[1913 Webster]
2. Of or pertaining to retirement; causing retirement; suited
to, or belonging to, retirement.
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Retiring board (Mil.), a board of officers who consider and
report upon the alleged incapacity of an officer for
active service.
Retiring pension, a pension granted to a public officer on
his retirement from office or service.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
retiring
adj 1: not arrogant or presuming; "unassuming to a fault,
skeptical about the value of his work"; "a shy retiring
girl" [syn: retiring, unassuming]
2: of a person who has held and relinquished a position or
office; "a retiring member of the board" [syn: past(a),
preceding(a), retiring(a)]
3: reluctant to draw attention to yourself [syn: reticent,
self-effacing, retiring]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
106 Moby Thesaurus words for "retiring":
Olympian, aloof, aseptic, backward, bashful, blank, boat-shaped,
boatlike, bowl-shaped, bowllike, cavelike, cavernous, chilled,
chilly, cold, concave, concaved, constrained, cool, coy,
craterlike, cup-shaped, cupped, cymbiform, declining, demure,
detached, diffident, diminishing, discreet, dish-shaped, dished,
dishing, dishlike, distant, dwindling, dying, ebbing,
expressionless, fading, forbidding, frigid, frosty,
funnel-breasted, funnel-chested, funnel-shaped, guarded, hollow,
hollowed, humble, icy, impassive, impersonal, inaccessible,
incurved, incurving, incurvous, infundibular, infundibuliform,
introverted, meek, modest, navicular, naviform, offish, quiet,
rabbity, receding, reclusive, remote, removed, repressed, reserved,
restrained, reticent, retreating, saucer-shaped, scaphoid,
scyphate, self-effacing, shrinking, shy, sinking, spoonlike,
standoff, standoffish, subdued, sunk, sunken, suppressed, timid,
timorous, unaffable, unapproachable, unassertive, unassuming,
unassured, uncongenial, undemonstrative, unexpansive, ungenial,
unpretentious, unsociable, unsocial, waning, withdrawn