I. rə̇ˈkəvə(r), rēˈ- verb
( recovered ; recovered ; recovering -v(ə)riŋ ; recovers )
Etymology: Middle English recoveren, from Middle French recoverer, from Latin recuperare; akin to Latin recipere to take back, receive — more at receive
transitive verb
1. : to get or win back
sat down to recover his breath
died without recovering consciousness
answered as soon as he could recover his voice
recover the pioneering spirit of their ancestors
2. archaic : to get well from (as an injury, a sickness)
3.
a. : to bring (oneself) back to normal balance or self-possession
stumbled and recovered himself
b. archaic : rescue , deliver
that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil — 2 Tim 2:26 (Authorized Version)
4.
a. : to make good the loss, injury, or cost of : make up for
recover increased costs through higher prices
hoped to recover his gambling losses with a big coup
b. : to gain by legal process
recover damages and costs in a libel suit
recover title to a disputed property
recover judgment against a defendant
5. archaic : to gain by motion or effort : reach
6. archaic : restore , cure , heal
from death to life thou might'st him yet recover — Michael Drayton
she hath recovered the king and undone me — Shakespeare
7. : to find again
recover a lost scent
recover the trail of a fugitive
8.
a. : to obtain from an ore, a waste product, or a by-product
recover gold from ore with cyanide
b. : to save from loss and restore to usefulness : reclaim
recover land from the sea
c. : to bring out or bring to light after neglect, burial, obscurity
recover the lost secrets of ancient glassblowers
recover the key of a cryptographic message
recover petroleum from deep deposits
intransitive verb
1.
a. : to regain health after sickness : become well
recovering from a bout of pneumonia
patients on the southern side of a hospital recover faster than those on the northern side — Herbert Spencer
b. : to regain a formal or normal state (as of vigor, self-control, consciousness)
when she had recovered from the first shock of the news
the cotton industry was recovering after a slump during the war
2. : to regain a position of guard or readiness
recover after a lunge in fencing
recover for the next rowing stroke
3. : to obtain a final judgment in one's favor : to succeed in a lawsuit or proceeding
4. obsolete : to make one's way back : return
Synonyms:
recover , regain , retrieve , recoup , and recruit can mean to get back what has been let go or lost. recover , the most comprehensive, can apply to anything lost and got back in any way
recover a lost wallet
recover one's sanity
recover one's balance
recover one's position in a firm
regain , often interchangeable with recover , implies more strongly a winning back
regain one's health
regain one's liberty after a long imprisonment
regain one's rights as a citizen
regain popularity
retrieve implies a recovering or regaining after some effort
retrieve a lost fortune
retrieve one's position lost through ill fortune
although the verb can have as its object such a word as loss, error, failure, or disaster, with which it then implies a reparation or a setting right
retrieve an error in addition
retrieve a bad financial disaster by careful investment
recoup , a legal term implying a fair deduction as of part of a claim of a successful plaintiff in a law suit, in common use implies recovery or retrieval, usually in equivalent rather than identical form, of something lost
recoup gambling losses by more careful play
recoup by some good hard work the money lost in bad investments
recruit in this context can imply a regaining, by fresh additions or a replenishment of the supply, of what has been lost
recruit a new battalion for the foot army
the present difficulty of recruiting staff in the accountancy profession — Accountancy
I fed and watered my horse and recruited my own energies with roast beef — W.H.Hudson †1922
In extension it has come to apply to any acquiring as of members or a supply
a fair-sized audience can be recruited — Sidney Kaufman
hundreds of thousands of Americans who had never worked before … were recruited for war production — Dorothy Jones
recruit a staff for a new restaurant
II. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English recovere, from Middle French recovre, from recoverer to recover
: recovery 3