“RET” or “ret” can mean several different things depending on context, but most commonly it is:

  • In everyday abbreviations: “ret.” = retired , as in “Col. Smith (Ret.)” meaning “Colonel Smith, retired.”
  • As a verb in English: “to ret” = to soak flax, hemp, or similar plants to loosen the fibers for processing.
  • In programming slang and forums: “ret” is often shorthand for “return (value)” , for example a variable named ret holding a function’s return code.
  • As an all‑caps acronym “RET”: it can stand for many technical or organizational terms, such as “Renewable Energy Target,” “Renewable Energy Technology,” the x86 assembly ret (return from subroutine) instruction, or the RET proto‑oncogene in biology, so the exact meaning depends on the field being discussed.

If you share where you saw “ret” (chat, code, medical text, military bio, etc.), a more precise, single definition can be given for your specific case.