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withdrawn

UK/wɪðˈdɹɔːn/US/wɪðˈdɹɔn/
adjectiveC12 meaningsCommon in everyday speech and writing · #5,630 of 15,258leans written

Withdrawn means taken permanently out of the collection. A withdrawn title, stock withdrawn, withdrawn from circulation.

In libraries it is the technical term for a book removed for good, usually stamped as such and often sold off cheaply — which is how a great many secondhand books reach the shelves. Applied to a person it means quiet and unwilling to engage: he became withdrawn, which is a signal clinicians take seriously. Note withdraw; and withdrawal, meaning both the act and the symptoms.

Definitions of withdrawn

  1. 1adjectivewithdrawnTaken permanently out of the collection.C1

    “The library sells withdrawn books for fifty pence each.”

  2. 2adjectivequietQuiet and unwilling to engage.B2

    “Since his father died, the boy has become withdrawn and rarely speaks.”

withdrawn is a state of removal.

Practised in Libraries & Museums

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