ret

1. (transitive) To prepare (flax, hemp etc.) for further processing by soaking, which facilitates separation of fibers from the woody parts of the stem.Examples: "the hemp was retted / and soon the retting was done / and swiftly it was hung up / and hurriedly it was dried […]."; "the lowland nearly silent except for water-thrushes, the harvested fields, the smell of hops being dried in kilns, flax pulled up and piled in sheaves, in local practice not to be retted till the spring"transitive