What does retainer mean?
A retainer is most commonly a professional who remains available to provide continuing services, as in a lawyer or adviser who is “on retainer.” It can also mean the fee paid for that arrangement, often a monthly or annual payment. In dentistry, a retainer is an appliance worn to keep teeth in their proper positions after orthodontic treatment. Less commonly, the word refers to a person who keeps another as a dependent or follower. “Retainer” can also be used as a literary verb meaning “to retain” or “to keep.” The word is useful because it describes not merely temporary employment or a one-time service but an arrangement involving continuity, availability, or physical holding. Its meaning depends on context: the same word can name a person, a payment, or an object that maintains position.
A person, fee, or device that keeps or holds something in place, especially a professional engaged for continuing services.
"The designer works on retainer for the publishing house."
The professional and fee senses are especially common in legal, business, and advisory contexts; the dental sense is common in healthcare.
To retain or keep; to continue to hold.
"The walls retain the warmth of the afternoon sun."
This use is uncommon and is now chiefly literary or archaic; retain is normally preferred in modern English.
The plural is used for multiple employees, advisers, fees, or devices of this kind.
"The firm employs two legal retainers on a part-time basis."
A retainer can be a person, a payment, or even a dental appliance—but in every case its basic idea is keeping something in place.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does retainer come from?
The noun retainer was formed in Middle English with the agentive suffix -er, meaning a person or thing that retains, keeps, or holds. It ultimately relates to retain, which came through Old French from Latin retine(re), “to hold back” or “keep.” The verb use of retainer developed later and survives chiefly in literary and archaic writing.
How retainer is actually used
In professional and legal contexts, a retainer usually refers to an ongoing arrangement and the fee paid for it. The device sense is common in dentistry. The verb is uncommon and is now mainly literary or archaic.
Easily confused with retainer
A retainer is the person, fee, or device that provides or maintains continuing services or holds something in place, whereas retention is the act or condition of keeping or being kept.
Retain is the verb meaning to keep possession of something or continue to engage someone, while retainer is a noun naming the person, payment, or device involved.