Withdraw and withhold both keep something from someone, on opposite sides of the handover. To withdraw is to take back what was already given or put out — withdraw money, troops, a remark, consent you once granted. To withhold is never to release it in the first place — withhold payment, information, judgement, consent you never gave. Withdraw pulls back across the line; withhold keeps behind it.
Both are Middle English compounds of with- in its lost sense 'away, back' — the sense behind the long-obsolete withsay and withgo, and a cousin of the 'against' that survives in withstand. Withdraw is 'draw back': something already out there is pulled home, so there was a giving, and now there is a taking-back. Withhold is 'hold back': the thing never left your hands, and the refusal is silent, without ceremony. The difference is a timeline, not a degree. If it was handed over and is now retrieved, it was withdrawn; if it never left, it was withheld — and that single question settles almost every case, including the hardest ones in medicine and law.
withdraw
To withdraw is to take money out of an account, lowering the balance — and, more widely, to draw back or remove: troops withdraw, a runner withdraws from a race, a speaker withdraws a remark. It is built from with-, 'back', and draw, 'to pull'. In finance it is the opposite of deposit; take out too much, too often, and you deplete the account. The noun is withdrawal.
withhold
To withhold is to hold back — to keep something you could give or release, and choose not to. You can withhold information, payment, consent, or judgment. From 'with-' (back, away) plus 'hold', the thing is neither destroyed nor used up; it is deliberately kept behind a line. To withhold judgment is the careful, academic move of refusing to decide until the evidence is in, while to suppress is to push something down by force — withholding is quieter, a hand that simply does not open.
| withdraw | withhold | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | take back what was given or out | keep back; never release |
| Timeline | given first, then retrieved | never handed over at all |
| Movement | back across the line | held behind the line |
| Classic objects | money, troops, a remark, an application | payment, information, judgement, consent |
| Preposition | withdraw FROM (an account, a race) | withhold something FROM someone |
| Nouns | withdrawal | withholding |
The cash machine and the umbrella. Withdraw is the notes leaving the account: the money was in there, and now it has been drawn out and back to you — a reversal of something already in place. Withhold is the umbrella tilted home: the shelter never reached the other person at all, and nothing was spent to keep it. Ask one question — did it ever leave your hands? Yes, and you took it back: withdraw. No, and you simply kept it: withhold.
withdraw
- iShe withdrew £200 and the balance dropped accordingly.
- iiHe withdrew the remark before the sentence was finished.
- iiiTwo teams withdrew from the tournament after the storm.
withhold
- iThe landlord withheld the deposit without explanation.
- iiWitnesses who withhold information can be charged.
- iiiI'd withhold judgement until the second report lands.
Consent is the one place both verbs genuinely apply, at different moments: you withhold consent by never giving it, and withdraw consent you previously gave — and in research and data-protection law the second is a right, which is why forms promise you may withdraw consent at any time. Money keeps them apart neatly too: you withdraw funds you own, but an employer withholds tax that never reaches your account. Withdraw's own money-and-movement life, and withhold's contrast with deny, are drawn on the pages in the 'Related' list below.
The pair are collocation tests as much as meaning tests. Withhold takes information, payment, consent, judgement, approval; withdraw takes money, troops, an application, a remark, support, and pairs with from (withdraw from a course). Passive forms dominate formal register — 'treatment was withheld' versus 'treatment was withdrawn' — and reading passages in ethics or policy hinge on which. In writing, note that withdraw implies something existed to take back, so 'withdraw information you never gave' is a contradiction an examiner will see.