What does en retrait in French mean?

What is the meaning of the word en retrait in French? The article explains the full meaning, pronunciation along with bilingual examples and instructions on how to use en retrait in French.

The word en retrait in French means set back, quiet, indent, be set back, stay in the background, stay away, keep away. To learn more, please see the details below.

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Meaning of the word en retrait

set back

locution adverbiale (décalé, pas en avant)

(expression: Prepositional phrase, adverbial phrase, or other phrase or expression--for example, "behind the times," "on your own.")
Toutes les babioles étaient bien alignées, sauf une qui se trouvait un peu en retrait.
All the trinkets were lined up except for one which was slightly set back.

quiet

locution adjectivale (personne : discret)

(adjective: Describes a noun or pronoun--for example, "a tall girl," "an interesting book," "a big house.")
Cet élève a de bonnes notes à l'écrit, mais je le trouve trop en retrait et ses notes à l'oral sont plutôt basses.
This student has good grades for written work but I find him too quiet and his grades for speaking are rather poor.

indent

locution verbale (écrire avec un décalage) (line of text)

(transitive verb: Verb taking a direct object--for example, "Say something." "She found the cat.")
On écrit en retrait pour la première ligne d'un paragraphe.

be set back

locution verbale (s'effacer, ne pas intervenir)

(verbal expression: Phrase with special meaning functioning as verb--for example, "put their heads together," "come to an end.")

stay in the background

locution verbale (ne pas se mettre en avant)

(verbal expression: Phrase with special meaning functioning as verb--for example, "put their heads together," "come to an end.")

stay away, keep away

locution verbale (garder ses distances avec [qch])

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French (le français) is a Romance language. Like Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, it comes from popular Latin, once used in the Roman Empire. A French-speaking person or country can be called a "Francophone". French is the official language in 29 countries. French is the fourth most spoken native language in the European Union. French ranks third in the EU, after English and German, and is the second most widely taught language after English. The majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa, with about 141 million Africans from 34 countries and territories who can speak French as a first or second language. French is the second most widely spoken language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. It is the first language of 9.5 million people or 29% and the second language of 2.07 million people or 6% of the entire population of Canada. In contrast to other continents, French has no popularity in Asia. Currently, no country in Asia recognizes French as an official language.