retreatful

English

Etymology

From retreat +‎ -ful.

Adjective

retreatful (not comparable)

1. (rare) Furnishing or serving as a retreat.
   • c. 1610s, Homer (attributed), translated by George Chapman, The Crowne of all Homers Workes: Batrachomyomachia, or the Battaile of Frogs and Mise […], published 1624, page 4:

     Enabling vs to leape ashore for food, / And hide vs strait in our retreatfull flood

   • 1832 May 1, Joseph Livesey, “Agriculture”, in The Moral Reformer, volume 2, number 5, page 153:

     If ever there were a time when farmers were called from the slumbers of their fire sides, and from the honourable and retreatful occupations in the field, to the discussion of their grievances, it is now!

   • 1945, J. D. Salinger, “Elaine”, in Story, volume 26, page 45:

     The sand and air under the boardwalk was cool and clammy, and there were smells of sea things and picnic garbage. But it was dark and, abruptly, retreatful for Elaine […]

Further reading

• “retreatful”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.