rebuild
Americanverb (used with object)
-
rebuilds,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rebuilt,
past participle, past
-
rebuilded,
past participle, past (Archaic)
-
rebuilding
present participle
-
to repair, especially to dismantle and reassemble with new parts.
to rebuild an old car.
-
to replace, restrengthen, or reinforce.
to rebuild an army.
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to revise, reshape, or reorganize.
to rebuild a shattered career.
verb (used without object)
-
rebuilds,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rebuilt,
past participle, past
-
rebuilded,
past participle, past (Archaic)
-
rebuilding
present participle
verb
-
to make, construct, or form again
the cost of rebuilding the house
-
(tr) to restore (a system or situation) to a previous condition
his struggle to rebuild his life
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
rebuildsimple
-
rebuildssimple
-
have rebuildedperfect
-
have rebuiltperfect
-
has rebuildedperfect
-
has rebuiltperfect
-
am rebuildingprogressive
-
are rebuildingprogressive
-
is rebuildingprogressive
-
have been rebuildingperfect progressive
-
has been rebuildingperfect progressive
Past
-
rebuildedsimple
-
rebuiltsimple
-
had rebuildedperfect
-
had rebuiltperfect
-
was rebuildingprogressive
-
were rebuildingprogressive
-
had been rebuildingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rebuild
Explanation
When you construct something again, you rebuild it. If the chair you made from scraps of wood collapses when you sit in it, you can either rebuild it or give up on the idea of making your own furniture. When a natural disaster — like a hurricane or a tornado — destroys people's houses, they usually need the community's help to rebuild them. Before modern fire departments existed, several cities in the United States burned in terrible fires, destroying nearly all the homes and businesses. These cities had to rebuild, which they often did using less flammable materials, like bricks, rather than just wood.
Vocabulary lists containing rebuild
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:
“Higher prices, Europe’s slower storage rebuild and continued geopolitical uncertainty all point to a market that remains precariously balanced,” Cheniere Executive Vice President Anatol Feygin told investors last month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
As the Angels inch toward first 100-loss season in franchise history, interim general manager John Mozeliak shares the next steps in the team’s rebuild.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
“Sharing beauty is important when you want to rebuild the dignity of the people.”
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2026
The retailer needs a "mid-air engine swap" to rebuild its supply chain on diversified inventory sources beyond shipping directly from China, he added.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
Because she’d had to rebuild her whole life as if she were just some room in the Palace of Illusions?
From "Aru Shah and the End of Time" by Roshani Chokshi
Rebels led by HTS overthrew long-time Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, with the group's leader Ahmed al-Sharaa taking over as president as the country rebuilds after more than 13 years of civil war.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
Instead, Ted’s emphasis on personal growth and camaraderie rebuilds the Greyhounds from their league’s demoralized joke into its comeback kings, powered by their yearning to Believe.
From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2026
The findings support a broader model in which fresh magma gradually enters and rebuilds reservoirs beneath giant calderas after major eruptions.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
This, she says, will be followed by a broader recovery among oil and gas service providers as industry activity rebuilds through 2027-2028.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
By the early nineties, a scientist at Yale had used HeLa to discover that human cancer cells contain an enzyme called telomerase that rebuilds their telomeres.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
Nevertheless, 'In the Market-Place of Bruges stands the Belfry old and brown; Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches o'er the town.'
From Bruges and West Flanders by Amédée Forestier
The city destroyed by fire may be rebuilded as before.
From The Glory of the Conquered The Story of a Great Love by Susan Glaspell
The machine as it grinds must be rebuilded.
From The Romance of a Great Store by Edward Hungerford
Once more the vast dome of heaven became the roof of my house, and within the house was rebuilded that which my soul called beautiful.
From A Tramp's Sketches by Stephen Graham
Once, there at the beginning of the nineties, Grand Trunk made tentative offers for the control of the rebuilded property.
From The Story of the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg RailRoad by Edward Hungerford
Protect them, and the demand base for America’s rebuilt smelting capacity will drive itself.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
He has subsequently rebuilt his career to become an England regular across formats.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
In 1942, for example, Franklin D. Roosevelt tore down most of the East Wing and rebuilt it from the ground up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Vendors have little hope that the market will be rebuilt before the end of the war.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
Brown mud walls that had crumbled many a time and been rebuilt many a time.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
She said the bottleneck in recovery is not the city’s permitting process but instead insurance companies unwilling to pay survivors and banks that are reluctant to finance rebuilding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
Yet Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has also refreshed her top team and is showing signs of successfully rebuilding her party's reputation.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
The operational minimum has been estimated between 250-300 million, hence the urgency in rebuilding those stockpiles.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
Survivors were also faced with the daunting prospect of rebuilding their lives from nothing.
From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026
She’d gotten permission from her parents to attend a boarding school in the city so she could be close to Olympus and oversee the rebuilding efforts.
From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan
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.
