▪ I. retrocede, v.1
(ˈrɛtrəʊsiːd, ˈriːtrəʊ-)
[ad. L. retrōcēdĕre, f. retrō retro- + cēdĕre to yield, go back. So obs. F. retroceder, Sp. and Pg. -ceder, It. -cedere.]
1. intr. To go back; to retire; to recede.
| 1654 Vilvain Epit. Ess. v. lxxxii, One ran t' his Cave, th' other trembling hid, And went home glad, but would not retroced. 1681 H. More Exp. Dan. iii. 70 He durst proceed no further but retroceded from his enterprise on ægypt. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v. Precession, The Equinoctial Points..do retrocede or move backwards from East to West, about 50 Seconds each Year. 1850 Browning Easter Day xvi, I felt begin The Judgment-Day: to retrocede Was too late now. 1878 19th Cent. Dec. 1051 When we retrocede further into the secondaries it seems rather doubtful whether birds, as we now understand them, had even come into being at that period. |
2. Med. Of gout: To strike inwardly.
| 1866 Aitken Pract. Med. II. 53 If acute gout should have ‘retroceded’, as it is called, and the stomach or intestinal canal be inflamed, leeches should be applied. |
▪ II. retrocede, v.2
(riːtrəʊˈsiːd)
[ad. F. rétrocéder: see retro- and cede v.]
trans. To cede (territory) back again to a country, etc.
| 1818 Gentl. Mag. LXXXVIII. ii. 172 By a treaty of 1783, Great Britain retroceded to Spain all the territory which Spain and France had ceded to her in 1763. 1856 Abridgm. Deb. Congress (1858) II. 741/2 note, In 1846, the Virginia part of the District was retroceded to that State. 1879 Spectator 20 Sept., The valuable province of Kuldja..has been retroceded to China. |
Hence retroˈceded ppl. a.
| 1883 Pall Mall G. 8 Mar. 1/2 The most important of these chiefs.., who has always been a partisan of the Boers, occupied the central portion of the retroceded country. |