RETEN'TION, noun [Latin retentio, retineo; re and teneo, to hold.]

1. The act of retaining or keeping.

2. The power of retaining; the faculty of the mind by which it retains ideas.

3. In medicine, the power of retaining, or that state of contraction in the solid or vascular parts of the body, by which they hold their proper contents and prevent in voluntary evacuations; undue retention of some natural discharge.

4. The act of withholding; restraint.

5. Custody; confinement. [Not in use.]