retentive Copy link • retentive: tĕnax, ācis (constr. with gen.): a r. memory, t. memoria, Plin. Ep. 6, 11: Quint. Phr.: a city r. of the institutions of its founder, civitas conditoris retinens, Tac. A. 6, 42: the acute, r. being whom we call man, animal acutum, memor, quem vocamus hominem, Cic. Leg. 1, 7, 22.