retrait meaning (obsolete): definition, etymology and quotations

retrait

noun

Etymology From Middle French retrait. Doublet of retract, retreat, and ritratto.

Obsolete A picture or other visual representation.

She is the mighty Queene of Faerie, / Whose faire retrait I in my shield do beare […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

retrait

adj

Etymology From Middle French retrait. Doublet of retract, retreat, and ritratto.

Obsolete Retired.

retrait

adj

Etymology Variant forms.

Government, Heraldry, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Monarchy, Nobility, Politics Rare Not shown in full, but cut off at point it touches the edge of the shield, an ordinary, etc, as if retreating or withdrawn into that edge, ordinary, etc. (Compare issuant, naissant.)

KETHEL in Holland uses, Azure, a pale retrait in chief (i.e., a demi-pal) soutenu by a chevron between three cauldrons or.1892, John Woodward, George Burnett, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 121:
The blazon : Arms : Per Saltire Gules and Or in fess two pellets pierced and in pale many plates also pierced on a chief Argent issuant as in chief seven pallets retrait two three and two Sable.1988, The Augustan Society Omnibus:

1 more example

The upper margin is bordered by a low quality frieze bearing the coat of arms of Pope Gregory XV (r. 1621-1623) : gules, three bendlets retrait per fess […]2010, Elena De Laurentiis, The Lost Manuscripts from the Sistine Chapel: An Epic Journey from Rome to Toledo: