Verb

(en verb)

To declare with assurance or plainly and strongly; to state positively.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April

, author=Colin Allen , title=Do I See What You See? , volume=100, issue=2, page=168 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Numerous experimental tests and other observations have been offered in favor of animal mind reading, and although many scientists are skeptical, others assert that humans are not the only species capable of representing what others do and don’t perceive and know.}}

he would often assert his beliefs to us

To use or exercise and thereby prove the existence of.

to assert one's authority

Salman Rushdie has asserted his right ... to be identified as the author of this work

To maintain or defend, as a cause or a claim, by words or measures; to vindicate a claim or title to; as, to assert our rights and liberties.

The quasi-judicial pre-grant process of asserting patent rights and appeals procedures during patent examination; 'to assert' patent rights means to defend or maintain patent rights.

(computer science) To make true; to make equal to 1. (rfex)

Verb

(en verb)

To pull back inside.

An airplane retracts its wheels for flight.

(ambitransitive) To draw back; to draw up.

Muscles retract after amputation.

A cat can retract its claws.

To take back or withdraw something one has said.

I retract all the accusations I made about the senator and sincerely hope he won't sue me.

* Bishop Stillingfleet

I would as freely have retracted this charge of idolatry as I ever made it.

* Granville

She will, and she will not; she grants, denies, / Consents, retracts , advances, and then flies.

To take back, as a grant or favour previously bestowed; to revoke.

(Woodward)