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Retention vs Retain - What's the difference?

retention | retain | Related terms |

Retain is a related term of retention.



In obsolete terms the difference between retention and retain

is that retention is a place of custody or confinement while retain is to belong; to pertain.

As a noun retention

is the act of retaining or something retained.

As a verb retain is

to keep in possession or use.

retention

Noun

(en noun)
  • The act of retaining or something retained
  • * 1599 , , II. iv. 95:
  • No woman's heart / So big, to hold so much; they lack retention .
  • The act or power of remembering things
  • A memory; what is retained in the mind
  • (medicine) The involuntary withholding of urine and faeces
  • (obsolete) That which contains something, as a tablet; a means of preserving impressions.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) The act of withholding; restraint; reserve.
  • * 1599 , , V. i. 79:
  • His life I gave him, and did thereto add / My love without retention or restraint,
  • (obsolete) A place of custody or confinement.
  • (legal) The right to withhold a debt, or of retaining property until a debt due to the person claiming the right is duly paid; a lien.
  • (Erskine)
    (Craig)

    Anagrams

    *

    retain

    English

    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.

    Synonyms

    * keep

    Anagrams

    * *