verb
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to restore (something) to good condition
to renovate paintings
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to revive or refresh (one's spirits, health, etc)
Usage
What does renovate mean? Renovate most commonly means to make improvements or changes to a structure, especially to the inside of a home or other kind of building.For example, a homeowner might renovate a room in their house by painting it and getting new flooring. This is often much more extensive: renovating a kitchen can involve getting new cabinets and appliances as well as new painting and new flooring, perhaps even a new layout.Some people renovate their homes themselves, while others hire a contractor to do it.The process of renovating is called renovation. The word renovation can also refer to such a project, as in This renovation is going way over budget. The word renovated can be used as an adjective to describe spaces that have been improved in this way, as in a newly renovated kitchen. More generally, renovate means to restore something to good condition—to repair or refurbish it. However, outside of the context of home improvement, the terms restore, refurbish, and repair are more often used.Renovate can also mean to reinvigorate, refresh, or revive, but this sense of the word isn’t commonly used either.Example: I’m planning to renovate the bathroom with new tile and a new vanity.
Related Words
See renew.
Other Word Forms
- renovatable adjective
- renovatingly adverb
- renovation noun
- renovative adjective
- renovator noun
- unrenovated adjective
- unrenovative adjective
Etymology
Origin of renovate
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English (adjective), from Latin renovātus (past participle of renovāre ), equivalent to re- re- + novus new + -ātus -ate 1
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.
Cleveland’s Rocket Arena, which opened in 1994 and was last renovated in 2019, is also home to the Cleveland Monsters, an American Hockey League affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
From Los Angeles Times
Dumfries House in Ayrshire has been renovated and turned into a training centre in a part of Scotland hit badly by the closure of local coal mines.
From BBC
Maybe she’s already renovated it for the high-tea expansion and wants to show it to us?
From Literature
He sold his Chicago hotel in 2016 for $60 million, roughly equal to the amount he and Morgan Stanley spent purchasing and renovating the property.
The transport ministry has said that the line on which it happened had been renovated and undergone recent technical reviews.
From BBC
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.
