Verb

(receiv)

To take, as something that is offered, given, committed, sent, paid, etc.; to accept; to be given something.

:

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:Our hearts receive your warnings.

*(John Locke) (1632-1705)

*:The idea of solidity we receive by our touch.

*(Bible), viii.64:

*:The brazen altar that was before the Lord was too little to receive the burnt offerings.

*, chapter=19

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= No hiding place , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.}}

To take possession of.

To act as a host for guests; to give admittance to; to permit to enter, as into one's house, presence, company, etc.

:

*(Bible), (w) xxviii.2:

*:They kindled a fire, and received us every one.

*

*:In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.

To suffer from (an injury).

:

To allow (a custom, tradition, etc.); to give credence or acceptance to.

*(Bible), (w) vii.4:

*:Many other things there be which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots.

(lb) To detect a signal from a transmitter.

(lb) To be in a position to take possession, or hit back the ball.

# To be in a position to hit back a service.

#(lb) To be in a position to catch a forward pass.

To accept into the mind; to understand.

*, I.57:

*:I cannot receive that manner, whereby we establish the continuance of our life.

Verb

(en verb)

To keep in possession or use.

* Milton

Be obedient, and retain / Unalterably firm his love entire.

* 1856 : (Gustave Flaubert), (Madame Bovary), Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling

A strange thing was that Bovary, while continually thinking of Emma, was forgetting her. He grew desperate as he felt this image fading from his memory in spite of all efforts to retain it. Yet every night he dreamt of her; it was always the same dream. He drew near her, but when he was about to clasp her she fell into decay in his arms.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=1 citation , passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.}}

To keep in one's pay or service.

* Addison

A Benedictine convent has now retained the most learned father of their order to write in its defence.

To employ by paying a retainer.

To hold secure.

(obsolete) To restrain; to prevent.

(obsolete) To belong; to pertain.

* Boyle

A somewhat languid relish, retaining to bitterness.