recycle
Americanverb (used with object)
-
recycles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
recycled,
past participle, past
-
recycling
present participle
-
to treat or process (used or waste materials) so as to make suitable for reuse.
recycling paper to save trees.
-
to alter or adapt for new use without changing the essential form or nature of.
The old factory is being recycled as a theater.
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to use again in the original form or with minimal alteration.
The governor recycled some speeches from his early days.
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to cause to pass through a cycle again.
to recycle laundry through a washing machine.
verb (used without object)
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recycles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
recycled,
past participle, past
-
recycling
present participle
-
to pass through a cycle again; repeat a process from the beginning.
-
to undergo reuse or renewal; be subject to or suitable for further use, activity, etc..
The industry will recycle and become profitable once more.
noun
verb
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to pass (a substance) through a system again for further treatment or use
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to reclaim (packaging or products with a limited useful life) for further use
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to institute a different cycle of processes or events in (a machine, system, etc)
-
to repeat (a series of operations)
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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recyclabilitynoun
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recyclernoun
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recyclistnoun
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nonrecyclableadjective
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recyclableadjective
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unrecycledadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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recyclesimple
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recyclessimple
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have recycledperfect
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has recycledperfect
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am recyclingprogressive
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are recyclingprogressive
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is recyclingprogressive
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have been recyclingperfect progressive
-
has been recyclingperfect progressive
Past
-
recycledsimple
-
had recycledperfect
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was recyclingprogressive
-
were recyclingprogressive
-
had been recyclingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of recycle
Explanation
When you recycle something, you process it so it can be used again. You might recycle an old tire and make it into a snazzy black knapsack with some very cool skid marks. The prefix re- means again, and when you recycle something, you process it for another cycle of use. The phrase "reduce, reuse, recycle" gives you three ways to prevent waste. When you recycle plastic bottles, they’re melted down and made into new bottles or even furniture or clothing. You might do some creative recycling and turn your old textbooks into a coffee table. When you have your washing machine repeat the wash or rinse cycle, that’s a different recycle.
Vocabulary lists containing recycle
Natural Resources and the Environment - Introductory
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Earth Science - Middle School
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Earth Science: Natural Resources and the Environment
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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:
That’s the measure of successful policy: Does it help America make more, recycle more and build more with aluminum?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
But he left an indelible mark on the environment, authoring legislation offering incentives to recycle, limiting advertisers’ inflated claims about products’ environmental benefits and combating water and air pollution.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
As some machines demonstrated their ability to clean or recycle objects, others showed they could deliver parcels during a live demonstration in Brussels.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
PVC is especially challenging to recycle because it contains chlorine and can include a wide range of additives depending on how it was manufactured.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 29, 2026
"Did he find a way to recycle sneakers?"
From "Holes" by Louis Sachar
Factories that would normally delay payment started putting down cash upfront "because they were so eager to secure material", said Rizq Yousif, who mainly recycles PET, the plastic widely used in beverage and food packaging.
From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 2026
The latest “Scary Movie,” which simply recycles the title “Scary Movie,” is as lazy, dumb and offensive as the others.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
The site recovers and recycles silver collected from a nearby site, Sigman said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
Mark Casto, 67, from Ditchingham, Norfolk - known as Dalek man - recycles everything from Christmas baubles to dustbin lids to create the life-size villains.
From BBC ● May 30, 2025
He worked in the barbershop for a while, then got a job working for Free Venture, an environmentally certified nonprofit that refurbishes and recycles e-waste on-site.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
From cardboard boxes to water bottles, recycled materials power American manufacturing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Natalie James, 47, said she recycled "probably about the same" at work and at home.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
Adding this much nuclear probably means the Pentagon and Energy Department work together to establish a reprocessing facility and final resting place for anything that can’t be recycled, usually only 4% of the spent fuel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
A century ago, scrap supplied about 30% of America’s copper, close to the 32% recycled globally today.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms–up to a billion for each of us, it has been suggested–probably once belonged to Shakespeare.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
“We’re interfering with the cell’s recycling machinery that’s important in all of our healthy cells,” said Dr. Julie Gralow, chief medical officer of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
We should absolutely ask how to make recycling more efficient and economical.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
One promising approach to recycling carbon dioxide is hydrogenation, which uses a catalyst to help CO2 react with hydrogen and form chemicals such as methanol.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
The goal should be to recover materials where it makes sense, strengthen the markets that give them value and make recycling work better for consumers and American manufacturers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
Two hours later, the bathrooms are wiped down, my bedroom is visitor-ready with clean sheets, the family room is vacuumed, and the old magazines are in the recycling bin.
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
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