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
Quick to beat a retreat when confronted but willing to test new ground when the opportunity arises, Gibson’s Fetchit brilliantly embodies the crazy-as-a-fox interpretation of the character that Power advances.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2023
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
Oswald had taken advantage of the approach of strangers to beat a retreat unnoticed, and to leave the ballroom.
From Fickle Fortune by Elisabeth Burstenbinder (AKA E. Werner)
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.
