the.com/retract
the elegant art of swallowing your own words before they swallow you
means To withdraw or take back something you've said, claimed, or committed to — or to physically draw something inward.
from From Latin retrahere, "to draw back," built from re- ("back") and trahere ("to pull, drag") — the same trahere that gives us tractor, traction, and extract. So whether a cat sheaths its claws or a newspaper unsays a libel, both are literally pulling the thing back where it came from.
- claw origin
- From Latin retrahere, to drag backward
- cat hardware
- Retractable claws stay razor-sharp by hiding
- science self-correct
- Journals retract thousands of flawed papers yearly
- landing gear
- Wheels retract to cut aircraft drag
- legal weight
- A retraction can shrink a defamation suit