retinue

Definition

A group of attendants or servants, especially of someone considered important.

Etymology

From Middle English retenue, from Old French retenue, past participle of retenir (“retain”). Doublet of ritenuto.

Example Sentences

• "the queen’s retinues"
• "And not any longer as a king did Winter appear in those streets, as when the city was decked with gleaming white to greet him as a conqueror and he rode in with his glittering icicles and haughty retinue of prancing winds, but he sat there with a little wind at the corner of the street like some old blind beggar with his hungry dog."
• "12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift Preceded by a Simpsons short shot in 3-D—perhaps the only thing more superfluous than a fourth Ice Age movie—Ice Age: Continental Drift finds a retinue of vaguely contemporaneous animals coping with life in the post-Pangaea age."