Word.ws English Dictionary

retrieve

/ɹɪˈtɹiːv/US/ɹəˈtɹiv/

retrieve verb: to regain or get back something.

Verb

retrieve (third-person singular simple present retrieves, present participle retrieving, simple past and past participle retrieved)

  1. (transitive) To regain or get back something.
    • to retrieve one's character or independence; to retrieve a thrown ball
    • With late repentance now they would retrieve / The bodies they forsook, and wish to live.1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  2. (transitive) To rescue (a creature).
  3. (transitive) To salvage something
  4. (transitive) To remedy or rectify something.
  5. (transitive) To remember or recall something.
  6. (transitive) To fetch or carry back something, especially (computing) a file or data record.
    • to retrieve them from their cold, trivial conceits1714, Rev. Dean Berkeley, letter to Alexander Pope, May 1, 1714
  7. (transitive) To fetch and bring in game.
    • The cook doesn't care what's shot, only what's actually retrieved.
  8. (intransitive) To fetch and bring in game systematically.
    • Dog breeds called 'retrievers' were selected for retrieving.
  9. (intransitive) To fetch or carry back systematically, notably as a game.
    • Most dogs love retrieving, regardless of what object is thrown.
  10. (transitive) To make a difficult but successful return of the ball.
  11. (obsolete) To remedy the evil consequence of, to repair (a loss or damage).
    • Accept my sorrow, and retrieve my fall.1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
    • There is much to be done […] and much to be retrieved.1795–1797, Edmund Burke, “(please specify |letter=1 to 4)”, in [Letters on a Regicide Peace], London: [Rivington]

Noun

retrieve (plural retrieves)

  1. A retrieval.
    • Secondly, the number of retrieves given in any one session is restricted according to the dog's level of interest. If he is not madly keen he has perhaps two or three retrieves in a session, and on some days he will have none at all.2013, Margaret Allen, In the Bag!: Labrador Training from Puppy to Gundog
  2. The return of a difficult ball.
  3. (obsolete) A seeking again; a discovery.
  4. (obsolete) The recovery of game once sprung.
    • we'll bring Wax to the retrieve1625 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Staple of Newes. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot […], published 1631, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene...

retrieve meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

retrieve in Tamil

திரும்பப் பெறு, மீட்டெடு, இழந்ததை மீட்டல்

retrieve in Urdu

بچانا, برآمد کرنا, ڈھونڈ لانا, جان بچانا, سنبھالنا

retrieve in Bengali

পুনরূদ্ধার করা, ত্রাণ করা, ক্ষতিপূরণ করা, মেরামত করা

retrieve in Malayalam

bring back, get back, recover
വീണ്ടെടുക്കുക, കണ്ടെടുക്കുക, മടക്കിക്കിട്ടുക, തിരിച്ചുകിട്ടുക, തിരിച്ചുകൊണ്ടുവരുക, വീളുക
rectify, put right, set right
പരിഹരിക്കുക, തിരുത്തുക, ശരിപ്പെടുത്തുക, ശരിയാക്കുക, തെറ്റു തിരുത്തുക, തിരുത്തി ശരിപ്പെടുത്തുക
More languagesFewer languages
retrieve in Kannada
ಹುಡುಕಿ ತರು, ಪತ್ತೆಹಚ್ಚು, ಪತ್ತೆಹಚ್ಚಿ ತರು, ಅರಸಿ ತರು
retrieve in Arabic
استرجع istarajaʿa
retrieve in Vietnamese
thu thập

Examples of retrieve in a sentence

  • My son was able to squeeze in the tight crawl space to retrieve the cat.
  • Once laden it is easy to regenerate the adsorbent and retrieve the adsorbed species as a gas.
  • Retrieving my dropped possessions from the mud was a degrading experience.

All 40 example sentences with retrieve

Forms of retrieve

Verb
third-person singular presentretrieves
present participleretrieving
past participleretrieved
pastretrieved
Noun
pluralretrieves

Past tense of retrieve: retrieved

Plural of retrieve: retrieves

Origin of retrieve

Recorded in Middle English c. 1410 as retreve (altered to retrive in the 16th century; modern form is from c. 1650), from Middle French retruev-, stem of Old French retrover (“to find again”, modern retrouver), itself from re- (“again”) + trover (“to find”), probably from Vulgar Latin *tropāre (“to compose”).

Words formed from retrieve

Words that rhyme with retrieve

45 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about retrieve

What does retrieve mean?
Retrieve means to regain or get back something.
What is retrieve in Tamil?
Retrieve in Tamil is திரும்பப் பெறு, மீட்டெடு, இழந்ததை மீட்டல். See Retrieve meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is retrieve?
Retrieve can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce retrieve?
Retrieve is pronounced /ɹɪˈtɹiːv/ (UK).
What is the past tense of retrieve?
The past tense of retrieve is retrieved.

Words near retrieve in the dictionary

  1. retrievable
  2. retrievableness
  3. retrievably
  4. retrieval
  5. retrievals
  6. retrieve
  7. retrieved
  8. retrieveless
  9. retrievement
  10. retrievements
  11. retriever

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: retrieve (page history and authors); retrieve (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); retrieve (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); retrieve (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); retrieve (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); retrieve (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-retrieve.wav.

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