retractate
retractate verb: to retract; to recant.
Verb
retractate (third-person singular simple present retractates, present participle retractating, simple past and past participle retractated)
- To retract; to recant.
- St. Augustines authoritie you let slip denying him a fit Maister to follow, you say he might retractate this, but neither you doe nor can show that he did retractate it.1615, John Ainsworth (Prisoner in Newgate.), The Trying Out of the Truth, page 112
- It is true my labors are most set to have those works, which I formerly published, as that of Advancement of Learning, that of Henry VII., that of the Essays, being retractate, and made more perfect, well translated into Latin by the help of some good pens , which forsake me not.1623, Francis Bacon, Letter to Tobie Matthew
Examples of retractate in a sentence
- Augustine was not ashamed to retractate, we might say revoke, many things that had passed him, and doth even glory that he seeth his infirmities.1888, John Read Dore, editor, Old Bibles, page 370:
- For that purpose an examination of passages which are suspected of being "retractated" is necessary to determine what sort of passages suffer generally at the hands of the retractator.1920, Helen Emma Wieand Cole, Deception in Plautus: A Study in the Technique of Roman Comedy, page 154:
Forms of retractate
| third-person singular present | retractates |
|---|---|
| present participle | retractating |
| past participle | retractated |
| past | retractated |
Origin of retractate
From Latin retractatus, past participle of retractare. See retract.
Questions about retractate
- What does retractate mean?
- Retractate means to retract; to recant.
- How do you use retractate in a sentence?
- Augustine was not ashamed to retractate, we might say revoke, many things that had passed him, and doth even glory that he seeth his infirmities.
- What part of speech is retractate?
- Retractate is a verb.
- What is the past tense of retractate?
- The past tense of retractate is retractated.
Words near retractate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: retractate (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.
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