Other forms: retracted, retracting, retracts
To retract is to draw something back in — or to take back something you said. Claws and statements both.
The physical sense belongs to machinery and animals, so an undercarriage retracts and a cat retracts its claws. The other sense is about words, and retracting a statement, an allegation or an offer means formally withdrawing it. Journals retract papers when the findings turn out to be wrong, which is a serious matter for a scientist. The noun is retraction, and retractable describes anything that pulls in.
To retract is to pull back. Latin retrahō joins re, back, to trahō, to drag, and it is the same trahō that pulls a tractor along.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰregʰ-
Latin
retractus — withdrawn
Middle English
retracten
English, today
retract
Built from
From Late Middle English retracten, retract (“to absorb, draw in”), from Latin retractus (“withdrawn”), the perfect passive participle of Latin retrahō (“to draw or pull back, withdraw; to bring back; to compel to turn back; to recall; to get back, recover; to hold back, restrain, withhold; to remove, take away; to bring to light again; (Late Latin) to delay”), from re- + trahō (“to drag, pull; to extract, withdraw”). a doublet of retreat.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA