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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
retard
verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Even in small amounts, lead can retard development in children.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ It says that the company razed forests, polluted rivers, retarded crop growth and caused birth defects.
▪ Research from Harvard and United Nations organisations has shown that the cost of corruption includes retarded development and more inequalities.
▪ The implication is that Britain's economic performance is retarded by an anti-industrial culture.
▪ The inability to do so has retarded the progress of pallidotomy development for nearly 50 years.
▪ The process has retarded the kind of interdisciplinary research required by complex environmental and population issues.
▪ This process is called retarding and it adds an interesting dimension to the bread.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Retard

Retard \Re*tard"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Retarded; p. pr. & vb. n. Retarding.] [L. retardare, retardatum; pref. re- re- + tardare to make slow, to delay, fr. tardus slow: cf. F. 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.

    Syn: To impede; hinder; obstruct; detain; delay; procrastinate; postpone; defer.

Retard

Retard \Re*tard"\, v. i. To stay back. [Obs.]
--Sir. T. Browne.

Retard

Retard \Re*tard"\, n.

  1. Retardation; delay.

  2. A mentally retarded person. [Colloq. and disparaging]

  3. a person who is stupid or inept, especially in social situations. [Colloq. and disparaging]

    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.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
retard

late 15c., "make slow or slower," from French retarder "restrain, hold (someone) back, keep (someone from doing something); come to a stop" (13c.) or directly from Latin retardare "make slow, delay, keep back, hinder" (see retardation). Related: Retarded; retarding.\n

\nThe noun is recorded from 1788 in the sense "retardation, delay;" from 1970 in offensive meaning "retarded person," originally American English, with accent on first syllable. Other words used for "one who is mentally retarded" include retardate (1956), retardee (1971).

Wiktionary
retard

n. 1 retardation; delay. 2 (context slang offensive English) A person with mental retardation. 3 (context slang offensive English) A stupid person, or one who is slow to learn. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To keep delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progress; to render more slow in progress; to impede; to hinder 2 (context transitive English) To put off; to postpone. 3 (context transitive obsolete English) To be slow or dilatory to perform (something). 4 (context intransitive English) To decelerate; to slow down. 5 (context intransitive obsolete English) To stay back.

WordNet
retard
  1. n. a person of subnormal intelligence [syn: idiot, imbecile, cretin, moron, changeling, half-wit]

  2. v. slow the growth or development of; "The brain damage will retard the child's language development" [syn: check, delay]

  3. cause to move more slowly or operate at a slower rate; "This drug will retard your heart rate"

  4. be delayed

  5. lose velocity; move more slowly; "The car decelerated" [syn: decelerate, slow, slow down, slow up] [ant: accelerate]

Wikipedia
Retard (pejorative)

Retard when used as a noun is a pejorative word used to refer to people with mental disabilities. The word retard was widely accepted in the late-1900s to refer to people with mental disabilities; however it is now more commonly used as an insult. The word has gained notoriety for causing a growing number of mentally disabled people to feel unfairly stereotyped.

Usage examples of "retard".

Kuhl, that retarded people often resist acknowledging their limitations?

Stoth priest, now fully confirmed and entered into his adeptship, went before the Mechanist Union with a proposal to distribute the drug, which retards deterioration of cell generations and extends the number of such replications per organism as well as conferring extensive immunities, throughout the thirty-seven nations.

Chatterford personnel will have the pink to repair damage and retard ageing, but that is the most they will endure.

I hoped nothing would occur to retard the progress of the work, and that the present arrangement might continue without changes of any kind, because I knew that when you were dictating your mind was completely absorbed by your mental labors, and that any alteration in your hours of work, or the necessity of explaining your methods to a new amanuensis, annoyed and impeded you.

Moreover, the working of the dry method has been monopolised by a small ring of assayers, with the double result of exciting outside jealousy and, worse still, of retarding the development and improvement of the process.

Since colchicine retards cell-division, a propulsion spell was used to ensure its efficacy.

Sadie now knew the spell which would retard permeation and blistering on a cuprous oxide mix applied to whitecast iron, and had look, see she held out a hand across the foam of her dress, indelible blue half moons of cobalt under her fingernails.

The American Academy of Pediatrics generally recommends that doxycycline not be used in children under nine years old because the drug may retard skeletal growth in infants and cause discolored teeth in infants and children.

He went to medical reference on his computer and let it search Retarded Growth, Premature Maturity, and Dwarfism, and sat down to read it on screen.

The circulation is loaded with effete and useless matter, the vessels being thereby weakened and distended, and the circulation retarded.

Flanders made him overlook all considerations, either of domestic discontents or of commotions among the Scots, his embarkation had been so long retarded by the various obstructions thrown in his way, that he lost the proper season for action, and after his arrival made no progress against the enemy.

Though the affairs of Ireland were extremely pressing, and the protestants of that country had made repeated application for relief, the succours were retarded either by disputes among the ministers, or the neglect of those who had the management of the expedition, in such a manner that king James had been six months in Ireland before the army was embarked for that kingdom.

In consequence the pulse grows small and weak, and the patient cannot exercise or labor as usual, and finally the lower limbs begin to swell, then the face and body, the skin looks dusky, the appetite is impaired, the kidneys become diseased, there is difficulty in breathing, and the patient, it is said, dies of dropsy, yet dropsy was the result of a disease of the heart, which retarded the circulation and enfeebled the system, and which was actually the primary cause of death.

After my visit to the king, I called on Branicki, who had made daily enquiries afer my health, and had sent me back my sword, He was condemned to stay in bed for six weeks longer at least, for the wad of my pistol had got into the wound, and in extracting it the opening had to be enlarged, which retarded his recovery.

If Hask gets a really low score on a standard IQ test, he could qualify as retarded.