adjective
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having given up one's work, office, etc, esp on completion of the normal period of service
a retired headmistress
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( as collective noun ; preceded by the )
the retired
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withdrawn; secluded
a retired life
a retired cottage in the woods
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of retired
Explanation
Someone who's retired has stopped working permanently. A retired teacher who misses his job might volunteer at an after-school program. Most retired people in the U.S. are over the age of 65, although some are able to retire earlier, and some continue working well into their 70s or 80s. Some jobs provide pensions, or partial salaries, to retired workers, and other retired people take advantage of government-provided benefits like Social Security. To retire means "to stop working," but also "to retreat or withdraw," and in the 1500s, retired meant "separated or withdrawn from society."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After the last photo was snapped, Quiroz retired to her office.
From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2026
According to one retired operator, the heyday of the donkeys was the 1960s and '70s, before cheap foreign holidays to Mediterranean coasts slashed the numbers of summer holidaymakers to UK resorts.
From BBC • May 16, 2026
"We have seen how the figure of former president Nicolas Maduro has been gradually retired from public spaces," said Eduardo Valero Castro, a political science professor at the Central University of Venezuela.
From Barron's • May 16, 2026
“This is really a seminal, critical trial that’s going to affect society,” the 73-year-old Jackson, a retired sketch artist.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 16, 2026
She regarded the main part of the basement: the one saggy couch that had been retired from the living room upstairs after Finn spilled grape Kool-Aid on it.
From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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.
