beat a retreat
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Journalists who were already staking out the area around Burgenstock under tight security beat a retreat, knowing that the talks could be on again at any moment.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
Along with outsize earnings-day stock losses for AT&T, U.S. equity benchmarks beat a retreat.
From Reuters ● Apr. 21, 2023
The surge has led states and cities across the U.S. to beat a retreat, just weeks after it looked as if the country was going to see a close-to-normal summer.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 2, 2021
I was a cub reporter at the Kansas City Star, and a colleague dragged me to one of the chain’s metro locations, back before White Castle beat a retreat from the K.C. market.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 6, 2021
I would you were willing even now to beat a retreat, nor take further risks to yourself and men, in so bootless an errand.
From The Last of the Vikings by John Bowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
