retrieve

A retrieval.

Noun

  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...
  2. The return of a difficult ball.
  3. A seeking again; a discovery.
  4. The recovery of game once sprung.
    • we'll bring Wax to the retrieve - 1625 (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...

Origin

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”).

Forms

retrieves

Verb

  1. 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,...
  2. To rescue (a creature).
  3. To salvage something
  4. To remedy or rectify something.
  5. To remember or recall something.
  6. To fetch or carry back something, especially (computing) a file or data record.
    • to retrieve them from their cold, trivial conceits - 1714, Rev. Dean Berkeley, letter to Alexander Pope, May 1, 1714:
  7. To fetch and bring in game.
    • The cook doesn't care what's shot, only what's actually retrieved.
  8. To fetch and bring in game systematically.
    • Dog breeds called 'retrievers' were selected for retrieving.
  9. To fetch or carry back systematically, notably as a game.
    • Most dogs love retrieving, regardless of what object is thrown.
  10. To make a difficult but successful return of the ball.
  11. 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,...
    • 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]:

Forms

retrieves retrieving retrieved

Related

retrieval

Derived

retrievability retrievable retrieveless retrievement retriever unretrieved