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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
retainer
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
old
▪ Gooseneck found out about it through a retired old retainer who lived in the area.
▪ Half-a-dozen old retainers acted as anchor-men in the positions they had had in the previous cabinet.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Insurance companies keep the finest legal talent on retainer.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Alan tells Jody she can hire him for a five-hundred-dollar retainer.
▪ Control may also be achieved through resource management, such as social insurance schemes or payment of retainers or fees for service.
▪ Each vied with others in the number of his retainers, the magnificence of his robes and accoutrements.
▪ Gooseneck found out about it through a retired old retainer who lived in the area.
▪ Half of outside directors' annual retainers, moreover, would be paid in stock.
▪ They are reclusive and idiosyncratic, dwelling in exquisite mansions far from each other with their families and a select band of retainers.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Retainer

Retainer \Re*tain"er\, n.

  1. One who, or that which, retains.

  2. One who is retained or kept in service; an attendant; an adherent; a hanger-on.

  3. Hence, a servant, not a domestic, but occasionally attending and wearing his master's livery.
    --Cowell.

  4. (Law)

    1. The act of a client by which he engages a lawyer or counselor to manage his cause.

    2. The act of withholding what one has in his hands by virtue of some right.

    3. A fee paid to engage a lawyer or counselor to maintain a cause, or to prevent his being employed by the opposing party in the case; -- called also retaining fee.
      --Bouvier.
      --Blackstone.

  5. The act of keeping dependents, or the state of being in dependence.
    --Bacon.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
retainer

"fee to secure services," mid-15c., originally "act of keeping for oneself" from retain, or perhaps from or influenced by Middle French retenir, infinitive used as a noun. Meaning "fee paid to an attorney to secure his services" is from 1818.

retainer

"servant," 1530s, agent noun from retain (v.). Also "one who retains or holds" (1540s). Meaning "dental structure used to hold a bridge in place" is recorded from 1887.

Wiktionary
retainer

n. 1 A dependent or follower of someone of rank. 2 A paid servant, especially one who has been employed for many years. 3 Any thing or person that retains. 4 A fee one pays to reserve the other's time for services. 5 (context dentistry English): A device that holds teeth in position after orthodontic treatment.

WordNet
retainer
  1. n. a fee charged in advance to retain the services of someone [syn: consideration]

  2. a person working in the service of another (especially in the household) [syn: servant]

  3. a dental appliance that holds teeth (or a prosthesis) in position after orthodontic treatment

Wikipedia
Retainer (orthodontics)

Orthodontic retainers are custom-made devices, usually made of wires or clear plastic, that hold teeth in position after surgery or any method of realigning teeth. They are most often used before or after dental braces to keep teeth in position while assisting the adjustment of the surrounding gums to changes in the bone. Most patients are required to wear their retainer(s) every night at first, with many also being directed to wear them during the day – at least initially. There are four types of retainers typically prescribed by orthodontists and dentists: Hawley, Essix, Zendura, and Bonded (Fixed) retainers.

Retainer

Retainer may refer to:

  • Retainer (medieval), a person, especially a soldier, in the service of a lord in the late Middle Ages
    • Retainer sacrifice, the sacrifice of a human servant
  • Retainer (orthodontic device)
  • Retainer agreement, a contract in which an employer pays for work to be specified later
  • RFA Retainer (A329), a ship
  • Retainers in China, a social group in early china.

Usage examples of "retainer".

It was difficult for the old retainer to be serious about a person, even a doctor, who had been rescued from trees as a child and spanked on more than one occasion for disturbing the Ames beehives.

The aquarium had called, and they were interested in discussing a new retainer agreement.

Ungrian retainers, Lord Wichman, the Polenie duke Boleslas, Hrodik and Druthmar, Brigida with her levies from Avaria, a lady from Fesse, and several nobles from the marchlands who had joined to avenge the damage done to their lands by the Quman.

He had nothing for it but to endeavour to be the first to convey the already-blown news to Sir John Peachy, sheriff for Kent: his pains were rewarded by his being detained prisoner as a suspected person, while Sir John mustered his yeomanry, and, together with the neighbouring gentry and their retainers, marched towards Hythe, The wavering people, awed by this show of legal and military power, grew cool towards the White Rose, whose name, linked to change and a diminution of taxation, had for a moment excited their enthusiasm.

Besides the king and his family, the broch complex housed all the noble-born retainers of the court.

Ako was confiscated, and his retainers having become Ronins, some of them took service with other daimios, and others became merchants.

Permanent cadre are Ks deniable operators on a salaried retainer not freelancers like me, called on to carry out shit jobs that no one else wants.

Where was the fulgent peak of Higashi Honganji Temple, sweeping upward among the surrounding tiled roofs like the upturned chin of a princess among her retainers?

And of a late, stormy night, they were used by Sir Huhmfree Gawlin and certain of his retainers.

Erskine and Ramsay now locked the door opening on the narrow stair, at which the retainers of Gowrie struck with axes.

He therefore proposed to send back with Ruthven a retainer of his own with a warrant to Gowrie, then Provost of Perth, and the Bailies, to take over the man and the money.

I took it, thanking him kindly, and wished for a palace and bunch of gutty retainers.

Yes, she has met Sir Brandon Miles and some of his retainers at a party given there by Duke Giles several months ago.

The sentiments of men were divided: all the nobility had taken part on one side or the other: the people followed implicitly their leaders: the two claimants themselves had great power and numerous retainers in Scotland: and it is no wonder that, among a rude people, more accustomed to arms than inured to laws, a controversy of this nature, which could not be decided by any former precedent among them, and which is capable of exciting commotions in the most legal and best established governments, should threaten the state with the most fatal convulsions.

The terrifying word of them flew before them, and the strong and able either fled or took to their keeps or mottes or fortified steadings with all their retainers, kindred, and kine, while the weak and helpless rushed to join immediately they came in proximity to the red-handed worshipers of the Mother.