RETRACE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does retrace mean? 

• RETRACE (verb)
  The verb RETRACE has 2 senses:

1. to go back over again

2. reassemble mentally

  Familiarity information: RETRACE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RETRACE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they retrace    ... he / she / it retraces   
Past simple: retraced   
Past participle: retraced   
-ing form: retracing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

To go back over again

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

retrace; trace

Context example:

trace your path

Hypernyms (to "retrace" is one way to...):

return (go or come back to place, condition, or activity where one has been before)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Reassemble mentally

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

construct; reconstruct; retrace

Context example:

reconstruct the events of 20 years ago

Hypernyms (to "retrace" is one way to...):

conjecture; hypothecate; hypothesise; hypothesize; speculate; suppose; theorise; theorize (to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "retrace"):

etymologise; etymologize (construct the history of words)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

 Context examples 

A cloud is lowering on the distant town, towards which I retraced my solitary steps.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Still I could not turn, nor retrace one step.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Once only was I in this room before; and after stopping to look about her, and seemingly to retrace all that had then passed, she added, Once only before.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

But the man never turned, and, after stretching his arms above his head and yawning audibly, he retraced his steps to the forecastle scuttle and disappeared.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

For the distance of twenty feet Wolf watched him go, himself all eagerness and expectancy, as though waiting for the man to turn and retrace his steps.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

More puzzled than ever, I retraced my steps to Kensington.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Scotch half-breed slowly retraced his steps to the camp they had left.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Silver himself appeared less terrible in contrast with this creature of the woods, and I turned on my heel, and looking sharply behind me over my shoulder, began to retrace my steps in the direction of the boats.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It was a great object to her to escape all enquiry or eclat; but it was her intention to be as decidedly cool to him as might be compatible with their relationship; and to retrace, as quietly as she could, the few steps of unnecessary intimacy she had been gradually led along.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He turned, with some wild intention of retracing his steps, but at the instant a great jagged rock, hurled by a brawny peasant, struck him full upon the ear, and he dropped senseless to the ground.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)