retraction

Meanings

Plural: retractions

Noun

• a disavowal or taking back of a previous assertion
• the act of pulling or holding or drawing a part back
  • "the retraction of the landing gear"
  • "retraction of the foreskin"
• An act or instance of retracting.
• A statement printed or broadcast in a public forum which effects the withdrawal of an earlier assertion, and which concedes that the earlier assertion was in error.
• A continuous function from a topological space onto a subspace which is the identity on that subspace.

Synonyms

abjuration, recantation