retainers

noun

plural of retainer
1
as in servants
a person hired to perform household or personal services knights being dressed for battle by their retainers

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in employees
one who works for another for wages or a salary lifelong civil service retainers

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of retainers Revenue generated through subscriptions, monthly retainers, maintenance agreements, service contracts, or long-term customer relationships gives buyers greater visibility into future performance. — Melissa Houston, Forbes.com, 7 July 2026 People have retainers for their lawyers. — Ashleigh Fields, The Hill, 21 May 2026 How To Improve Your Soil's Moisture Retention A short-term solution for small areas or containers with hydrophobic soil is a commercial wetting agent, often called water retainers or penetrants. — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 23 Apr. 2026 Wearing a night guard can help support better sleep, healthier teeth and reduced jaw discomfort and custom retainers help maintain alignment and protect your smile. — Tory Johnson, ABC News, 26 Mar. 2026 Regulars get the same attendant from visit to visit and treat them like family retainers. — Tom Sietsema, Washington Post, 17 Jan. 2026 Most of the contracts are retainers — with the lobbying firms receiving an equal payment each quarter. — Andrew Graham, Sacbee.com, 22 Dec. 2025 Domestically, Roosevelt’s progressive reforms—breaking up dozens of monopolies, modifying railroad rates, setting aside public lands for conservation—cut against the long run of industrial oligarchy enjoyed by assorted oil, timber, and coal kings in collusion with their congressional retainers. — Literary Hub, 16 Dec. 2025 Old Hamlet’s retainers acquired crumbling public housing estates turning out occupants enabling them to build showy apartments for cash buyers. — Baz Bamigboye, Deadline, 29 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for retainers
  1. servants
  2. employees
  3. workers
Noun
  • Raised by servants and educated by an uncle, Sade was a spoiled child with a temper and a taste for rebellion.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 12 Aug. 2026
  • Protecting the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is essential to ensuring America can continue recruiting and retaining the public servants our communities depend on.
    — Verna L. Williams, Fortune, 10 Aug. 2026
Definition of servants
Noun
  • More damaging, employees gradually learn that raising concerns means navigating the leader's emotional reaction before addressing the actual issue.
    — Rodger Dean Duncan, Forbes.com, 13 Aug. 2026
  • Or, that some of those same city employees would set up web cameras so that hundreds of residents could watch the baby falcons grow up in their nest on a ledge outside City Hall.
    — Addison Wright, Chicago Tribune, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of employees
Noun
  • The aid workers who once regularly visited her village to help pregnant women had stopped coming, after foreign aid cuts by the United States shuttered a program aimed at saving mothers’ and babies’ lives.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 13 Aug. 2026
  • The idea is for tech workers to live and work in the same building.
    — John Ramos, CBS News, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of workers

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Cite this Entry

“Retainers.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/retainers. Accessed 13 Aug. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on retainers

Nglish: Translation of retainers for Spanish Speakers

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