Other forms: withdraws, withdrew, withdrawn, withdrawing
To withdraw is to take something back out of where it was. Money out of an account, a hand out of a bag, an army out of a country, a name off a list. You withdraw forty pounds from the machine on the corner and the machine keeps a pound for itself.
It covers taking back what you offered or said: withdraw an offer, withdraw a remark, withdraw a complaint, withdraw from a race two days before it starts. Used of a person on their own it turns quiet — a withdrawn child has stepped back out of everything. The noun is withdrawal, doing double duty for the withdrawal of troops and for what a body goes through when it stops getting something it had got used to. It nearly always takes from: withdraw from the talks, withdraw money from an account. And it stays a formal word. At a cash machine most people say take out; withdraw is what is written on the screen.
1verbmoneyTo take money out of a bank account.~22%
“She withdrew two hundred pounds and put it straight in her pocket.”
synonyms: take out
2verbofferedTo take back something you offered or said.~15%
“The company withdrew the offer the next morning.”
formal in this meaning — an editor’s judgement
3verbwithdrawTo stop taking part in something.~36%
“Two runners withdrew before the race had even started.”
4verbmoveTo move back and away from a place, especially of soldiers.~27%
“The troops withdrew to the far side of the river.”
formal in this meaning — an editor’s judgement
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 152 sentences found in the wild and placed 152 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: pull out
It is exactly what it looks like: with plus draw. Middle English withdrauen meant to draw back, to retreat, to take away, and the draw underneath it goes back to a root meaning to drag or pull. Every modern use is still that same backwards pull, whether what is being pulled is an army, an offer, or twenty pounds.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰregʰ- — to drag, pull; to run
Middle English
withdrawen
English, today
withdraw
Built from
From Middle English withdrawen, withdrauen (“to depart, leave, move away; (reflexive) to go away; (reflexive) to leave someone’s service; (often reflexive) to draw back or retreat (from a battlefield or dangerous place), withdraw; to abandon, desert; to go, go forth; to move; of the sea, water, etc.: to (cause to) ebb, recede, subside; to disappear; to slacken, wane; (often reflexive) to cease, stop; to desist, refrain; (reflexive) to go back on, recant; to avoid, eschew; to bring under control, contain, suppress; to curb, curtail; to delay, put off; to demur, refuse; to carry or take away, deprive of, remove; to contract, draw away or in, retract; to deny, refuse; to revoke; to withhold; to divert; to separate; to adopt, borrow, imitate”)widdraw, witdrawe, withdrah, withdraugh, withdraughe, withdrauh, withdrauʒ, withdrawe, withdrawine, withdraʒ, withedrawe, withedrawin, wtdrau, (Northern England) widdrau, witdrau, from with- + drawen, drauen (“to drag, pull, tow, tug, draw [and other senses]”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European dʰregʰ- (“to drag, pull; to run”)); see further at with- and draw. The English word is analysable as with + draw.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA