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Synonyms

recruit

American  
[ri-kroot] / rɪˈkrut /

noun

  1. a newly enlisted or drafted member of the armed forces.

  2. a new member of a group, organization, or the like.

  3. a fresh supply of something.


verb (used with object)

  1. to enlist (a person) for service in one of the armed forces.

  2. to raise (a force) by enlistment.

  3. to strengthen or supply (an armed force) with new members.

  4. to furnish or replenish with a fresh supply; renew.

  5. to renew or restore (the health, strength, etc.).

  6. to attempt to acquire the services of (a person) for an employer.

    She recruits executives for all the top companies.

  7. to attempt to enroll or enlist (a member, affiliate, student, or the like).

    a campaign to recruit new club members.

  8. to seek to enroll (an athlete) at a school or college, often with an offer of an athletic scholarship.

verb (used without object)

  1. to enlist persons for service in one of the armed forces.

  2. to engage in finding and attracting employees, new members, students, athletes, etc.

  3. to recover health, strength, etc.

  4. to gain new supplies of anything lost or wasted.

recruit British  
/ rɪˈkruːt /

verb

    1. to enlist (men) for military service

    2. to raise or strengthen (an army, navy, etc) by enlistment

  1. (tr) to enrol or obtain (members, support, etc)

  2. to furnish or be furnished with a fresh supply; renew

  3. archaic to recover (health, strength, spirits, etc)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. a newly joined member of a military service

  2. any new member or supporter

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • recruitable adjective
  • recruiter noun
  • recruitment noun
  • unrecruitable adjective
  • unrecruited adjective

Etymology

Origin of recruit

First recorded in 1635–45; from French, stem of recruter, derivative of recrue “new growth,” noun use of feminine past participle of recroître ( re- re- + croître, from Latin crēscere “to grow”; crescent )

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.

Some other topics we delved into include the rise of reverse recruiting, seeing the City of Love on a budget and real-world money lessons in the classroom.

From The Wall Street Journal

To investigate, the researchers recruited 44 participants and asked them to make 540 decisions in a Dictator Game -- offering to split an amount of money with someone else, which they then got to keep.

From Science Daily

ByteDance, which has the biggest AI team in Chinese tech, sometimes pays salaries two or three times the market average to recruit top talent, said industry headhunter Shen Wei.

From Barron's

But only 10 total, plus the head coach, are allowed to recruit off-campus.

From Los Angeles Times

Beyond the military deployment, Ramaphosa announced additional measures to combat crime, including recruiting 5,500 police officers, strengthening intelligence, and targeting crime syndicates.

From BBC