Word.ws English Dictionary

beat a retreat

beat a retreat verb: to leave hastily in the face of opposition.

Verb

beat a retreat (third-person singular simple present beats a retreat, present participle beating a retreat, simple past beat a retreat, past participle beaten a retreat)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To leave hastily in the face of opposition.

beat a retreat meaning in Kannada

beat a retreat in Kannada

ವೇಗವಾಗಿ ಹಿಮ್ಮೆಟ್ಟು, ಪಲಾಯನ ಮಾಡು

Forms of beat a retreat

third-person singular presentbeats a retreat
present participlebeating a retreat
pastbeat a retreat
past participlebeaten a retreat
alternative formbeat retreat

Origin of beat a retreat

See beat (“to signal beating a drum”).

Questions about beat a retreat

What does beat a retreat mean?
Beat a retreat means to leave hastily in the face of opposition.
What is beat a retreat in Kannada?
Beat a retreat in Kannada is ವೇಗವಾಗಿ ಹಿಮ್ಮೆಟ್ಟು, ಪಲಾಯನ ಮಾಡು. See Beat a retreat meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is beat a retreat?
Beat a retreat is a verb.
What is the past tense of beat a retreat?
The past tense of beat a retreat is beat a retreat.

Words near beat a retreat in the dictionary

  1. beat
  2. beat 'em up
  3. beat 'em ups
  4. beat a dead horse
  5. beat a hasty retreat
  6. beat a retreat
  7. beat about
  8. beat about the bush
  9. beat all
  10. beat around the bush
  11. beat as one

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beat a retreat (page history and authors); beat a retreat (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “beat a retreat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beat_a_retreat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.