Retract vs Libel - What's the difference?
retract | libel |
To pull back inside.
(ambitransitive) To draw back; to draw up.
To take back or withdraw something one has said.
* Bishop Stillingfleet
* Granville
To take back, as a grant or favour previously bestowed; to revoke.
A written or pictorial statement which unjustly seeks to damage someone's reputation.
(uncountable) The act or crime of displaying such a statement publicly.
Any defamatory writing; a lampoon; a satire.
(law) A written declaration or statement by the plaintiff of his cause of action, and of the relief he seeks.
A brief writing of any kind, especially a declaration, bill, certificate, request, supplication, etc.
* Wyclif Bible (Matthew v. 31)
To defame someone, especially in a manner that meets the legal definition of libel.
* Alexander Pope
(legal) To proceed against (a ship, goods, etc.) by filing a libel.
In transitive terms the difference between retract and libel
is that retract is to take back or withdraw something one has said while libel is to defame someone, especially in a manner that meets the legal definition of libel.As a noun libel is
a written or pictorial statement which unjustly seeks to damage someone's reputation.retract
English
Verb
(en verb)- An airplane retracts its wheels for flight.
- Muscles retract after amputation.
- A cat can retract its claws.
- I retract all the accusations I made about the senator and sincerely hope he won't sue me.
- I would as freely have retracted this charge of idolatry as I ever made it.
- She will, and she will not; she grants, denies, / Consents, retracts , advances, and then flies.
- (Woodward)
Synonyms
* take back * withcall * withdrawSee also
* unsay * unspeaklibel
English
Noun
(en noun)- (Chaucer)
- a libel of forsaking [divorcement]
Synonyms
* See alsoVerb
- He libelled her when he published that.
- Some wicked wits have libelled all the fair.