retire vs retrograde

retire

verb
  • To retreat from action or danger; to withdraw for safety or pleasure. 

  • To stop working on a permanent basis, usually because of old age or illness. 

  • To cease use or production of something. 

  • To go back or return; to withdraw or retreat, especially from public view; to go into privacy. 

  • To fit (a vehicle) with new tires. 

  • To recede; to fall or bend back. 

  • To go to bed. 

  • To withdraw; to take away. 

  • To voluntarily stop batting before being dismissed so that the next batsman can bat. 

  • To withdraw from circulation, or from the market; to take up and pay. 

  • To cause to retire; specifically, to designate as no longer qualified for active service; to place on the retired list. 

  • To make a play which results in a runner or the batter being out, either by means of a put out, fly out or strikeout. 

noun
  • The act of retiring, or the state of being retired. 

  • A place to which one retires. 

retrograde

verb
  • To retreat or withdraw from a position. 

  • To cause (a land feature such as a coastline or waterfall) to undergo retrogradation, that is, to travel in the direction of the land or upstream due to erosion. 

  • To revert to an inferior or less developed state; to decline, to regress. 

  • Of a celestial body, especially a planet: to show retrogradation; to seem to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement. 

  • Of a land feature: to travel in the direction of the land or upstream due to erosion. 

  • To change (minerals, rocks, etc.) metamorphically through a decrease in pressure or temperature. 

adj
  • Reverting to an inferior or less developed state; declining, regressing. 

  • Having a passage of music played backwards. 

  • Of a celestial body: seeming to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement. 

  • Of the order of something: inverse, reverse. 

  • Of a celestial body orbiting another: in the opposite direction to the orbited body's spin. 

  • Of amnesia: relating to the period leading up to the episode which caused it. 

  • Of ideas or a person: opposing social reform, favouring the maintenance of the status quo; conservative. 

  • Directed or moving backwards in relation to the normal or previous direction of travel; retreating. 

  • Of an animal: appearing to regress to a less developed form during its lifetime. 

  • Of a metamorphic change: resulting from a decrease in pressure or temperature. 

noun
  • The reversal of a melody so that what is played first in the original melody is played last, and what is played last in the original melody is played first. 

  • A movement backwards or opposite to the intended or normal motion. 

  • The apparent movement of a planet across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement. 

  • One who opposes social reform, favouring the maintenance of the status quo; a conservative. 

adv
  • In a reverse direction; backwards. 

How often have the words retire and retrograde occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )