If you retreat, you move away from something or someone.

When an army retreats, it moves away from enemy forces in order to avoid fighting them.

If you retreat from something such as a plan or a way of life, you give it up, usually in order to do something safer or less extreme.

A retreat is a quiet, isolated place that you go to in order to rest or to do things in private.

If you beat a retreat, you leave a place quickly in order to avoid an embarrassing or dangerous situation.