recharge
Americanverb (used with object)
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to charge again with electricity.
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Informal. to refresh or restore; revitalize.
verb (used without object)
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to make a new charge, especially to attack again.
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Informal. to revive or restore energy, stamina, enthusiasm, etc.
noun
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an act or instance of recharging.
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Geology. the processes by which groundwater is absorbed into the zone of saturation.
verb
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to cause (an accumulator, capacitor, etc) to take up and store electricity again
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to revive or renew (one's energies) (esp in recharge one's batteries )
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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rechargesimple
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rechargessimple
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have rechargedperfect
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has rechargedperfect
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am rechargingprogressive
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are rechargingprogressive
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is rechargingprogressive
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have been rechargingperfect progressive
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has been rechargingperfect progressive
Past
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rechargedsimple
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had rechargedperfect
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was rechargingprogressive
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were rechargingprogressive
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had been rechargingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of recharge
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English: “to reload (a vessel)”; see re-, charge
Explanation
When you recharge something, you bring it back to life or reenergize it. You might charge your cell phone in the morning and then recharge it later in the day. If you can charge your electronics (or provide them with electrical energy), you can also recharge them when that energy is depleted. In addition to your camera battery and laptop, sometimes you need to recharge yourself, or take a break so you can become energized again. Less commonly, recharge is used to mean "refill a glass," and the original meaning, in the fifteenth century, was "to reload a vessel."
Vocabulary lists containing recharge
Earth Science - Middle School
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Earth Science - High School
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Earth Science - Introductory
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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:
Intense rainfall may fall in the wrong locations, run off too quickly, or fail to recharge the systems that sustain the lakes.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
It means she's had to find ways to recharge throughout a weekend - such as returning to her tent for a break.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
At the same time, Southern California cities have been investing in projects to capture stormwater and recharge groundwater as they seek to rely less on water imported from Northern California and the Colorado River.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
The majority of Brentford, Everton and Leeds' squads can put their feet up and recharge their batteries for next season, with those clubs sending just four players each.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
“Well, that bungee jacket was a spare, you know, and we did put it back on the recharge pile.”
From "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld
That includes “extended range electric vehicles,” battery-powered cars that have an onboard generator, running on gas, that recharges batteries on the fly.
From Barron's ● Dec. 15, 2025
It runs 15-30 minutes on a full battery, depending on the speed, and recharges in 45 minutes to about 3 hours, depending on your charger.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2025
Regenerative braking in EVs, which recharges the battery, does not involve friction.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2025
The wetland attracts birds, such as coots and tricolored blackbirds, and also recharges the aquifer that the roots of cottonwoods and willows tap into.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2024
A little advertising by the service station man, stating that he sells radio batteries, and also recharges them should bring in: very profitable business.
From The Automobile Storage Battery Its Care And Repair by Witte, Otto A.
Aluminum-air batteries have off-the-charts storage capacity but can’t be recharged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
"It stores sunlight, and it can be recharged."
From Science Daily ● May 15, 2026
Energy recovery and deployment are central to performance with engines that are served of electrical energy, and the battery is depleted and recharged on virtually every straight.
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2026
He was taking a class on air conditioning systems, and his vehicle’s AC needed to be recharged.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2026
On land, her battery recharged whenever she was in sunlight.
From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown
Giuseppe Capanna, a product safety engineer at the campaigning charity Electrical Safety First, said lithium batteries carry enormous amounts of energy, which is handy for recharging devices.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
Other agencies are recharging aquifers at dozens of sites across California and are building more facilities to replenish groundwater.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2026
The 400V battery system has a maximum recharging rate of 190 kW, restoring around 80% of capacity in 45 minutes or less.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 1, 2026
The distance that electric trucks can travel without recharging can be drastically cut when towing heavy loads or operating in less ideal conditions, such as cold weather.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 29, 2025
Looks like power and battery recharging are solved.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
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.
