retire

To extinguish a security, as in paying off a debt. Bloomberg Financial Dictionary

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retire re‧tire [rɪˈtaɪə ǁ -ˈtaɪr] verb

1. [intransitive] HUMAN RESOURCES to stop work at the end of your working life:

• He wanted to retire at 50.

• The company plans to eliminate 1,000 jobs by offering workers money to quit or retire early (= before the usual age ) .

retire as

• The company's No. 3 executive abruptly retired as a general partner, citing personal reasons.

retire from

• He will retire from his post on the management board in April.

— retired adjective :

• a retired teacher

2. [transitive] HUMAN RESOURCES to dismiss someone who is near the end of their working life:

• I took over the office when Mr Hargreaves was retired due to ill health.

3. [transitive] FINANCE if a company retires bonds, shares etc, it buys them back from investors and takes them off the market; = RETRACT:

• The group has purchased and retired $5.1 million of its Series B shares.

4. [transitive] FINANCE to pay off a loan completely:

• The loan terms state that he may retire the debt at any time.

5. [intransitive] LAW if the jury in a court case retires, it goes to a separate room to decide its verdict (= whether someone is guilty or not)

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retire UK US /rɪˈtaɪə^r/ verb

► [I] HR, WORKPLACE to leave your job or stop working, usually because of your age or ill health: »

She has no plans to retire.

retire from sth »

Jenkins retires from the firm this year.

retire as sth »

Elkin has retired as a director after 12 years on the board

retire at sth »

Can I get hold of the cash in my pension fund before I retire at 65?

»

James had to retire early after suffering three heart attacks in 2007.

→ See Note RESIGN(Cf. ↑resign)

► [T, often passive] HR, WORKPLACE, MANAGEMENT if an employer retires an employee, they make the employee leave their job, usually because they are near the age at which they would normally stop working, or because they are ill: »

He was retired early by his firm.

»

Companies typically retire workers at 60 and then hire about half of them back, often at 50-70% of their previous pay.

► [T] FINANCE to pay back a debt or loan completely: »

The funds were used to retire debt and to finance expansion.

»

Even after the state reduced benefits to workers and raised taxes on employers, it took until 2010 to retire that loan.

► [T] to take a machine or piece of equipment out of use because it is old and no longer useful: »

The European-made Concorde was retired from British and French service in 2005.

»

Among the other measures is a $35 rebate to retire older refrigerators for newer, more efficient ones.