ret
/ɹɛt/
ret verb: to prepare (flax, hemp etc.) for further processing by soaking, which facilitates separation of fibers from the woody parts of the stem. Also the abbreviation of retired.
Verb
ret (third-person singular simple present rets, present participle retting, simple past and past participle retted)
- To prepare (flax, hemp etc.) for further processing by soaking, which facilitates separation of fibers from the woody parts of the stem.
- the hemp was retted / and soon the retting was done / and swiftly it was hung up / and hurriedly it was dried […].1989, Elias Lönnrot, translated by Keith Bosley, The Kalevala, section XLVIII
- the lowland nearly silent except for water-thrushes, the harvested fields, the smell of hops being dried in kilns, flax pulled up and piled in sheaves, in local practice not to be retted till the spring2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 621
Noun capitalized: RET
RET (countable and uncountable, plural RETs)
- Initialism of road equivalent tariff.
- Initialism of rational emotive therapy.
Also used as
ret is also the abbreviation of retired.
ret is also the clipping of reiteration.
Forms of ret
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | rets |
| present participle | retting |
| past participle | retted |
| past | retted |
| Adjective | |
| alternative form | ret. |
| alternative form | retd |
| Noun | |
| plural | rets |
| plural | RETs |
Origin of ret
From Middle English retten, reten; perhaps from Middle Dutch rēten, reeten (compare Middle Low German rōten; Middle High German rōzen), or from Old Norse reyta (compare Norwegian røyta, Swedish röta); all from Proto-Germanic *rautijaną (“to make mellow or soft”), from Proto-Indo-European *rewd- (“to tear; rend; rip”). Related to rot.
Abbreviation.
Words formed from ret
Words that rhyme with ret
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- upset
- vignette
- whet
- sett
- cornet
- let
- manchette
- roulette
- yet
- cadet
- cassette
- collarette
- forget
- pet
- banquette
- met
- mignonette
- musette
- octet
- reset
- unset
- abet
- beget
- brunette
- cuvette
- debt
- dinette
- dudette
- duet
- minuet
- navette
- planchette
- quartet
- regret
- silhouette
- vinaigrette
- aid and abet
- amourette
- barrette
- bavette
- bet
- brett
- briquette
- corvette
- couchette
- enucleate
- fossette
- grisette
Questions about ret
- What does ret mean?
- Ret means to prepare (flax, hemp etc.) for further processing by soaking, which facilitates separation of fibers from the woody parts of the stem.
- What part of speech is ret?
- Ret can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce ret?
- Ret is pronounced /ɹɛt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of ret?
- The past tense of ret is retted.
Words near ret in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ret (page history and authors); RET (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ret.wav.
Cite this entry: “ret.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ret. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.