Past tense of retract
regular verb
The past tense of retract is retracted. The past participle is also retracted.
Forms of retract
| Base form (V1) | retract /ɹɪˈtɹækt/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | retracted |
| Past participle (V3) | retracted |
| Present participle | retracting |
| Third person singular | retracts |
Retracted in a sentence
- The collector shoes are automatically retracted when the electric handle is moved from "service off" to "lock off".1962 June, “The Design of the S.R. Electro-diesels”, in Modern Railways, Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allen Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 393
- I believe he has retracted since.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘‘Try Your Luck with Professor Challenger’’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and...
- The killer retracted his confession, but later reconfessed.From the entry reconfess
- He retracted the OTF blade into the hilt and walked away.2014, Jesse C. Pacheco, Requiem of Assassins I: Assassination of the Raven, Strategic Book Publishing Rights Agency, →ISBN, page 146. From the entry OTF
- The rostellum can be retracted into the rostellar sac within the scolex.2012, Thomas C. Cheng, General Parasitology, page 405. From the entry rostellum
Meaning of retract
- verb To pull (something) back or back inside.
- verb To draw (an extended body part) back into the body.
- verb To avert (one's eyes or a gaze).
Questions about the past tense of retract
- What is the past tense of retract?
- The past tense of retract is retracted.
- What is the past participle of retract?
- The past participle of retract is retracted.
- Is retract a regular or irregular verb?
- Retract is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: retract (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of retract.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/retract. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.