• (British, America) IPA: /ɹɛt/

From Middle English retten, reten; perhaps from Middle Dutch rēten, reeten (compare Middle Low German rōten; Middle High German rōzen), or from Old Norse reyta (compare Norwegian røyta, Swedish röta); all from Proto-Germanic *rautijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *rewd-.

ret (rets, present participle retting; simple past and past participle retted)

1. (transitive) To prepare (flax, hemp etc.) for further processing by soaking, which facilitates separation of fibers from the woody parts of the stem.
   • 1989, Elias Lönnrot, translated by Keith Bosley, The Kalevala, section XLVIII:

     the hemp was retted / and soon the retting was done / and swiftly it was hung up / and hurriedly it was dried […].

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 621:

     the lowland nearly silent except for water-thrushes, the harvested fields, the smell of hops being dried in kilns, flax pulled up and piled in sheaves, in local practice not to be retted till the spring

• French: rouir
• German: rotten
• Italian: macerare

Abbreviation.

1. retired

ret (plural rets)

1. (printing, historical) Short for reiteration.

ret

1. Init of road equivalent tariff
2. Initialism of rational emotive behavior therapy