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• ret
  ret

  verb (used with object)

  to soak in water or expose to moisture, as flax or hemp, to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.
• ret.
  ret.

  abbreviation

  retain.

ret

¹ American  

[ret] / rɛt /

verb (used with object)

retted, retting

1. to soak in water or expose to moisture, as flax or hemp, to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.

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ret. ² American  

abbreviation

1. retain.

2. retired.

3. return.

4. returned.

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ret British  

/ rɛt /

verb

1. (tr) to moisten or soak (flax, hemp, jute, etc) to promote bacterial action in order to facilitate separation of the fibres from the woody tissue by beating

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unretted
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of ret

1400–50; late Middle English reten, retten; cognate with Dutch reten (compare Dutch roten, German rössen, Swedish röta ); akin to rot

Example Sentences

John Juras was a member of the committee that selected the name of the trail and is now president of the RET Foundation.

From Washington Times • Feb. 13, 2016

Under Australian law, the RET must be agreed by both the coalition government and the Labor opposition.

From Reuters • Jun. 26, 2015

The Clean Energy Council says a cut in the RET will kill much of Australia's renewable energy industry, which employs about 21,000 people nationwide.

From BBC • Oct. 26, 2014

Support was especially high among women, with only 7% wanting the RET decreased or abolished.

From The Guardian • Jun. 21, 2014

For example, CTRL-a x RET means to simultaneously type Ctrl and lowercase a, followed by the letter x, followed by pressing Return.

From Debian GNU/Linux : Guide to Installation and Usage by Goerzen, John