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retainer

noun
/ɹɪˈteɪn.ə/UK/ɹɪˈteɪn.ɚ/US

Etymology

From retain + -er.

  1. derived from *ten-✻ — “to extend, stretch”
  2. derived from retinēre
  3. derived from *retino✻
  4. derived from retenir — “to keep back, retain; to keep, maintain, preserve; to possess; to engage in one’s service, employ; to detain; to hold back, restrain; to remember”
  5. derived from retenir
  6. derived from reteiner
  7. inherited from reteinen
  8. formed as retainer — “retain + -er”

Definitions

  1. Any thing or person that retains.

  2. A dependent or follower of someone of rank.

    • If they possessed the means to marshal labour, pile up food resources and provender armies of year-round retainers, what sort of royalty would consciously elect not to do so.

  3. A paid servant, especially one who has been employed for many years.

    • Of all this family lore I knew but little and vaguely; only what is to be gathered from the fireside talk of old retainers in the nursery.
  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. A fee one pays to reserve the other's time for services.

      • This lawyer charges a retainer for his work.

    2. A device that holds teeth in position after orthodontic treatment.

      • You give me head / It makes it worse / Take out your fuckin' retainer / Put it in your purse

    3. A retaining valve.

The neighborhood

Derived

general retainer, retainerless, retainership, special retainer

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at retainer. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01retainer02years03year04muharram05shiite06shi'a07followers08follower

A definitional loop anchored at retainer. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at retainer

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA