lexicow

retain

/rɪˈteɪn//rɪˈteɪn/·verb
I watch a steel flask stand alone on a table as the cold comes into the room. Frost creeps across the wood toward it, the light turns blue, the air bites — and on its side a small lit readout holds at a hundred degrees while a thread of steam keeps lifting from the top. The cold gets right up to its base and can come no closer; the number never falls. Everything around has gone to winter, and the flask alone keeps its heat, as if it had simply refused to let it out.
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Definition

To retain something is to keep it on purpose, holding on against the pull of loss. It comes from Latin retinēre — re-, 'back', plus tenēre, 'to hold' — so a grip is built into the word: you retain heat, moisture, staff, a lawyer, the right to decide. Where keep can be effortless and everyday, retain is deliberate and often formal, used when a thing could slip away if you loosened your hold. To stop retaining is to lose it, or to relinquish it on purpose.

Examples

  • Dark surfaces retain heat long after the sun has gone down.
  • The company struggled to retain skilled workers once wages elsewhere began to surge.
  • Even after years abroad, she retained the accent of the town she grew up in.

Collocations

retain heat·retain moisture·retain control·retain staff·retain the right to

Synonyms

keep·hold·preserve·maintain·withhold

Antonyms

release·lose·relinquish·abandon

Word family

retention (noun)·retentive (adjective)·retainer (noun)

In TOEFL & IELTS

A formal upgrade from keep, common in science and business writing: materials retain heat or water; firms retain customers, staff or earnings; a person retains the right to do something. The noun is retention (water retention, customer retention). Keep the contrast clear: retain holds on against loss, keep is plain holding, and relinquish is to give up deliberately.