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:
School holidays should be a time for children to have fun and build friendships, while families have the opportunity to work or recharge.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
His first major breakthrough came with FreeCharge, a mobile recharge platform he co-founded in 2010 as India's internet economy was beginning to take shape.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026
They’re useful for remote military applications, where soldiers can use them to recharge an ever-growing array of electronic devices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
By learning how to recharge those tiny engines, scientists may be opening a new path in the fight against dementia.
From Science Daily ● May 16, 2026
While I was out, I collected the twenty-six solar cells that aren't under the rover and set them up to recharge my batteries.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
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
If blooms begin lagging halfway through the bloom season, an additional feed recharges flowering.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 27, 2024
Of course your Skin recharges itself and the next time you eat fish it shocks you again.
From Rastignac the Devil by Farmer, Philip José
"It stores sunlight, and it can be recharged."
From Science Daily ● May 15, 2026
In nine minutes, it can be almost fully recharged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
With the battery emptying itself within about 11 seconds of full power, it is emptying and being recharged constantly around a lap.
From BBC ● Feb. 26, 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
The truck-batteries were recharged, a new shift of drivers took over, and we went on.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Russell lost that place because he hit the harvest limit early, which meant he was not recharging into the chicane so had less energy for the restart.
From BBC ● Mar. 29, 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
At Schaeffler, Digit labors alone inside a Plexiglas cage, moving baskets for four hours, recharging over lunch, then going again for another four hours.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 15, 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
The solar cells of the recharging hoverboards were blindingly bright in the sun.
From "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld
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.
