convalesce

American  

[kon-vuh-les] / ˌkɒn vəˈlɛs /

verb (used without object)

convalesces, present (3rd person singular) convalesced, past participle, past convalescing present participle

1. to recover health and strength after illness; make progress toward recovery of health.

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convalesce British  

/ ˌkɒnvəˈlɛs /

verb

1. (intr) to recover from illness, injury, or the aftereffects of a surgical operation, esp by resting

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• convalescing
  present
• convalesced
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• convalesce
  simple
• convalesces
  simple
• have convalesced
  perfect
• has convalesced
  perfect
• am convalescing
  progressive
• are convalescing
  progressive
• is convalescing
  progressive
• have been convalescing
  perfect progressive
• has been convalescing
  perfect progressive

Past

• convalesced
  simple
• had convalesced
  perfect
• was convalescing
  progressive
• were convalescing
  progressive
• had been convalescing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will convalesce
  simple
• will have convalesced
  perfect
• will be convalescing
  progressive
• will have been convalescing
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

convalesce convalesces convalesced convalescing

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

She will convalesce at home for two to three months, according to her office at the palace, and will not return to official duties until after Easter, which falls on March 31 this year.

From New York Times ● Jan. 29, 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

My argument is that if you learn this new language of the body and learn how to to be kind to yourself and to convalesce properly, you will convalesce much better.

From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2023

Afterward, most patients were sent off to outlying hospitals to convalesce.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

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

"Should he recover, it will take a month, or, perhaps, two, before he convalesces."

From The Daltons, Volume II (of II) Or,Three Roads In Life by Lever, Charles James

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

Sick and weighing only 70 pounds, he convalesced at a hospital, where he began painting scenes from Auschwitz, as well as landscapes.

From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 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

But he did have one precious commodity as he convalesced: time.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2015

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

His medical team said all he needed was oxygen, and convalescing there was better than hospital with all its infections.

From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2025

More than a dozen koalas were convalescing in open-air enclosures, wrapping their woolly arms around the trunks of eucalyptus trees.

From New York Times ● Apr. 15, 2024

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

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

Related Words

• recuperate