retractation

plural retractations

1. archaiccountableuncountableretraction (of something previously said)

   When he met Strether's eye on such occasions he looked guilty and furtive, fell the next minute into some attitude of retractation.

   1903 September 28, Henry James, The Ambassadors, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   […] but while they own what G. Fox hath written, and that he writ it with a perfect spirit: I say untill they do make some Recantation or Retractation: or shew the Reasons why they doe not, H. Norton who keeps more plainly to his Principles is to windward of them, and the Foxians do but strip themselves naked to be more derided and scorned as the more notorious Juglers and Dissemblers .

   1872, Publications of the Narragansett Club: George Fox digg'd out of his burrowes, page 257