Retard — Defs

01 v. t. To keep delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progress; to render more slow in progress; to impede; to hinder; as, to retard the…

imp. & p. p. Retarded; p. pr. & vb. n. Retarding

1.
To keep delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progress; to render more slow in progress; to impede; to hinder; as, to retard the march of an army; to retard the motion of a ship; -- opposed to accelerate.
2.
To put off; to postpone; as, to retard the attacks of old age; to retard a rupture between nations.

Syn. To impede; hinder; obstruct; detain; delay; procrastinate; postpone; defer.

02 v. i. To stay back.

1.
To stay back.[Obs.]

03 n. Retardation; delay.

1.
Retardation; delay.
2.
A mentally retarded person.[Colloq. and disparaging]
3.
a person who is stupid or inept, especially in social situations.[Colloq. and disparaging]

Phrases & compounds

Retard of the tide — the interval between the transit of the moon at which a tide originates and the appearance of the tide itself. It is found, in general, that any particular tide is not principally due to the moon's transit immediately proceeding, but to a transit which has occured some time before, and which is said to correspond to it. The retard of the tide is thus distinguished from the lunitidal interval. See under Retardation.