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.
-
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:
"I am standing to reunite the global football family, deliver genuine and lasting reform, modernise Fifa for the 21st Century, restore stability and credibility, and rebuild the trust that our game urgently needs," he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
“We need to rebuild our fighting muscle,” Parker says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
"We are sorry and we know we have work to do to rebuild trust with the Australian people," Kwon said.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
It says “the early FY27 production update is more encouraging, however, sustained delivery is still required to rebuild credibility.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
I didn't see any way Schindler could dismantle, move, and rebuild the entire plant.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
New blood vessel growth is equally important because healing tissue needs a steady supply of oxygen and nutrients as it rebuilds itself.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
But this offseason, Oklahoma State embraced the Indiana blueprint and embarked on one of the most ambitious rebuilds in football.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 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 utility has said that burying the wires as the town rebuilds thousands of homes destroyed in the fire will make the electrical grid safer and more reliable.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 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
In a rebuilded Jamestown, Lord De La Warr, of "approved courage, temper and experience," held for a short interval dignified, seigneurial sway, while his restless associates adventured far and wide.
From Pioneers of the Old South: a chronicle of English colonial beginnings by Mary Johnston
This castle, since rebuilded, you, my children, are of course familiar with, for you were all born here.
From The Black Wolf's Breed A Story of France in the Old World and the New, happening in the Reign of Louis XIV by C. M. (Charles Mark) Relyea
Within my own calm mirror a beautiful world had seen itself rebuilded.
From A Tramp's Sketches by Stephen Graham
In them days Commandments were mostly done in gilt letters on a black ground, and that's how they were out where I say, before the owld church was rebuilded.
From Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
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
Possessed of huge drive, vast wealth and immense personal charm, Archer bounced back from disaster and, more than once, rebuilt a shattered life.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
In another post, he expressed his wish for "an independent Quebec, a rebuilt Haiti".
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
PET contains carbon-rich molecules that can potentially be broken apart and rebuilt into useful compounds, including components that can ultimately become proteins.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 13, 2026
During an El Niño cycle in 1983, waves collapsed the landmark Seal Beach Pier, which has since been rebuilt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
No rebuilt motor, no fancy mountain bike, no nothing.
From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick
Part of that rebuilding is learning to assess what kind of fight we’re having.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
At the UN General Assembly in New York, Prime Minister Balen Shah explained rebuilding the country would require more than 10% of its gross domestic product, an enormous burden on the country's economy.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
In a place filled with people confronting the challenge of rebuilding their lives, the lyrics of one particular song were a reverie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
Solmssen’s novel, originally published in 1971, a European roundtable meant to promote postwar rebuilding gets co-opted by realpolitik.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
He saw ahead of him the heavy labour of rebuilding the windmill from the foundations, and already in imagination he braced himself for the task.
From "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story" by George Orwell
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.
