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 This bootstrapped San Jose firm is profitable from day one, securing $20,000-$30,000 monthly retainers from small businesses. — Elaine Pofeldt, Forbes.com, 17 Aug. 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
  • Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu via Getty Images Two former Golden State Warriors employees have sued the NBA franchise, alleging gender, age and race-based discrimination, workplace harassment and retaliation tied to their terminations.
    — Devon Henderson, New York Times, 2 Sep. 2026
  • As a correspondent for the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), Akiyama was chosen out of his 162 fellow employees who applied to fly to space in celebration of the network’s 40th anniversary.
    — Robert Pearlman, ArsTechnica, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of employees
Noun
  • Their crabs are steamed, frozen and packed into boxes to be shipped to Sri Lanka, where workers remove the meat by hand.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 2 Sep. 2026
  • The payrolls processing firm said firms added 38,000 workers, fewer than the upwardly revised 46,000 in July and below the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 47,000.
    — Jeff Cox, CNBC, 2 Sep. 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 4 Sep. 2026.

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