recast
Americanverb (used with object)
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recasts,
present (3rd person singular)
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recast,
past participle, past
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recasting
present participle
noun
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recasts
plural
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a recasting.
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a new form produced by recasting.
verb
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(often foll by as) to give (someone or something) a new role, function, or character
recast themselves as moderate and kind
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(often foll by as) to cast (an actor or actress) again or in a different part
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to cast new actors or actresses for a production of (a play, film, etc)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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recastsimple
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recastssimple
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have recastperfect
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has recastperfect
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am recastingprogressive
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are recastingprogressive
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is recastingprogressive
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have been recastingperfect progressive
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has been recastingperfect progressive
Past
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recastsimple
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had recastperfect
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was recastingprogressive
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were recastingprogressive
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had been recastingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of recast
Explanation
"Let's start over." That's what someone might say when he or she needs to recast something, meaning "to make major changes that make something seem very different or even brand new." When you recast something, you aren’t just improving it slightly — something that is recast typically involves significant changes to the original. As it applies to actors' parts in a movie, television show, or play, to recast a part means finding a different actor to play it. When you recast a metal item, like a piece of jewelry, the item is melted down completely and then remade in a new form. When teachers get blank stares from students, they recast their questions to make them less confusing.
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:
Near the heavily fortified frontier dividing the Korean peninsula, the abandoned Woljeong-ri station is being recast as a symbol of South Korea's hopes to reconcile with the North.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
“My protected speech, civic engagement, public records activity and advocacy were recast as misconduct,” she added.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
These days, the prevailing style of curmudgeonry is either nakedly bigoted or, like this one, an extended straw-man argument recast as a bold, brand-new revelation: Heterosexuality is good?
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2026
Several of the proposed cities never got off the ground, others were recast as more modest enterprises.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
Aristotle had recast heredity as the flow of information—a river of code moving from egg to the embryo.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Jumping around in time, “Franz” frequently recasts straightforwardly staged scenes from his life into twisted, surreal parables while occasionally checking in on contemporary Prague and its Kafka tributes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
The play, which radically recasts the fraternal relationship, developed far beyond its originating impetus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2025
The study also recasts homeobox gene TPRX2 thatencodes DNA-binding proteins.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 6, 2024
“Life on Delay” recasts stuttering and, in doing so, challenges long-standing attitudes toward disability.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 20, 2023
And these abridgments or recasts are professedly the work of Le Maistre Rusticien de Pise.
From The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Henry Yule
If the data turned hotter or colder, the rival drafts were a dress rehearsal for recasting policy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
RidgeAlloy is made by remelting aluminum recovered from used products and recasting it into a new alloy designed to meet the strength, ductility and crash safety requirements of structural vehicle components.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 10, 2026
Playwrights addressed the polis not by dramatizing current events but by recasting tales from the mythological and historic past to sharpen critical thinking on contemporary concerns.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2025
That is why he is recasting himself as a unifying figure - someone prepared to reach out across party lines to work with others to get things done.
From BBC ● May 4, 2025
If I really can’t sleep, I kill time casting and recasting both my coach and the genetically altered Hugh.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
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.
