Retard
Retard , transitive verb
[Latin retardare, retardatum; pref. re- re- + tardare to make slow, to delay, from tardus slow: compare French retarder. See Tardy.]
1.
To keep delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progress; to render more slow in progress; to impede; to hinder; as, to retard the march of an army; to retard the motion of a ship; -- opposed to accelerate.
2.
To put off; to postpone; as, to retard the attacks of old age; to retard a rupture between nations.
Retard , intransitive verb
To stay back. [Obsolete] — Sir. T. Browne
Retard , noun
1.
Retardation; delay.
2.
A mentally retarded person. [Colloquial and disparaging]
3.
a person who is stupid or inept, especially in social situations. [Colloquial and disparaging]
Collocations (1)
Retard of the tide or Age of the tide , the interval between the transit of the moon at which a tide originates and the appearance of the tide itself. It is found, in general, that any particular tide is not principally due to the moon's transit immediately proceeding, but to a transit which has occured some time before, and which is said to correspond to it. The retard of the tide is thus distinguished from the lunitidal interval. See under Retardation. — Ham. Nav. Encyc