keep in one's mind; "I cannot retain so much information"
secure and keep for possible future use or application; "The landlord retained the security deposit"; "I reserve the right to disagree"
allow to remain in a place or position; "We cannot continue several servants any longer"; "She retains a lawyer"; "The family's fortune waned and they could not keep their household staff"; "Our grant has run out and we cannot keep you on"; "We kept the work going as long as we could"
hold within; "This soil retains water"; "I retain this drug for a long time"
concise and full of meaning; "welcomed her pithy comments"; "the peculiarly sardonic and sententious style in which Don Luis composed his epigrams"- Hervey Allen
provided or fitted out with what is necessary or useful or appropriate; "a well equipped playground"; "a ship equipped with every mechanical aid to navigation"
prepared with proper equipment; "equipped for service in the Arctic"
excite to an abnormal condition, of chafe or inflame; "Aspirin irritates my stomach"
excite to some characteristic action or condition, such as motion, contraction, or nervous impulse, by the application of a stimulus; "irritate the glands of a leaf"