convalesce
Americanverb (used without object)
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convalesces,
present (3rd person singular)
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convalesced,
past participle, past
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convalescing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
convalescesimple
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convalescessimple
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have convalescedperfect
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has convalescedperfect
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am convalescingprogressive
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are convalescingprogressive
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is convalescingprogressive
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have been convalescingperfect progressive
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has been convalescingperfect progressive
Past
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convalescedsimple
-
had convalescedperfect
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was convalescingprogressive
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were convalescingprogressive
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had been convalescingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of convalesce
1475–85; < Latin convalēscere to grow fully strong, equivalent to con- con- + valēscere to grow strong ( val ( ēre ) to be well + -escere -esce )
Explanation
Convalesce is a soft-sounding word, and it describes something you should do in a soft bed: recover from an illness. When someone is convalescing, you can be sure something bad happened to them. Maybe they were hit by a car, had a heart attack, or got a bad case of the flu. People convalesce in hospitals, or, if things are a little less serious, at home. A nursing home is sometimes called a "convalescent home," because the old people who live there often have health problems. When you're sick or hurt badly enough to be convalescing, the good news is that you're starting to heal and have time to catch up on books or TV.
Vocabulary lists containing convalesce
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
To convalesce, they stay in this compound, and exercise by walking around its well-ordered clusters of three-story buildings and a synthetic turf avenue with a playground and soccer field.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
A volunteer with the group drove the bird to the Tri-State Bird Rescue in Delaware, where the owl continues to convalesce and regain the strength to fly regularly.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 24, 2023
As they convalesce, the children have told relatives harrowing details of their time in the jungle.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 12, 2023
Krige plays Veronica Ghent, an actress who just had a double mastectomy and wants to convalesce at a rustic retreat in the Scottish Highlands.
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2022
Ginny Koong’s room was empty because she was downstairs with Dickie in his room, the two of them now recovered enough to convalesce together.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
We’re doing this interview over Skype – me in London lockdown, he at his 78-year-old mother’s house in the hills above Los Angeles: he’s looking after her while she convalesces from surgery.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 27, 2020
As Farrell’s character convalesces, it becomes increasingly unclear whether he is manipulating his female caregivers or whether they are playing out their own power games through him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2017
The hospital in which Moose convalesces from his heart attack is “a department store for sadness”; his cough is “small, way short of a proper hack, a kind of diet cough.”
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 14, 2016
Lundqvist is expected to miss at least two more weeks as he convalesces after a vascular injury to his neck.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2015
And since then continually, thanks to God, her Majesty convalesces better and better....
From Mary Queen of Scots 1542-1587 by Various
And when he suffered a punctured lung against Manchester United on a tour of the States, he convalesced at the Los Angeles home of McElhenney.
From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2025
Cinderella underwent a successful operation at VCA Lakewood Hospital and convalesced at a volunteer’s home for a month.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2023
Ranger convalesced in a medical quarantine pool specially designed to increase his eating and weight, while strengthening both his immune system and his bond with human caregivers.
From Seattle Times ● May 12, 2022
During Novak’s mental-health ordeal, she convalesced at home with her parents, making slow progress on her book, “How to Weep in Public,” which was published by Crown in 2016.
From New York Times ● Oct. 12, 2021
For five years now she had convalesced in confinement, but she still had not healed.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
Robert Dickman, for one, was convalescing at a hospital in Queens.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
During their tour, they met with the convalescing Pope at the Vatican and enjoyed a state banquet in their honour.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2025
Pink needed two surgeries and almost two months of recovery at the same aviary where Blue is convalescing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2024
The court was shown video statements the couple provided police as they were convalescing as well as their testimony in court.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 11, 2023
Despite the fact that Mr. Muhammad, convalescing, could no longer work the daily long hours he had previously worked in Chicago, he was now more than ever burdened with heavy decision-making and administrative duties.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
