recycle
Americanverb (used with object)
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to treat or process (used or waste materials) so as to make suitable for reuse.
recycling paper to save trees.
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to alter or adapt for new use without changing the essential form or nature of.
The old factory is being recycled as a theater.
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to use again in the original form or with minimal alteration.
The governor recycled some speeches from his early days.
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to cause to pass through a cycle again.
to recycle laundry through a washing machine.
verb (used without object)
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to pass through a cycle again; repeat a process from the beginning.
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to undergo reuse or renewal; be subject to or suitable for further use, activity, etc..
The industry will recycle and become profitable once more.
noun
verb
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to pass (a substance) through a system again for further treatment or use
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to reclaim (packaging or products with a limited useful life) for further use
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to institute a different cycle of processes or events in (a machine, system, etc)
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to repeat (a series of operations)
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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recyclabilitynoun
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recyclernoun
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recyclistnoun
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nonrecyclableadjective
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recyclableadjective
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unrecycledadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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recyclesimple
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recyclessimple
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have recycledperfect
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has recycledperfect
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am recyclingprogressive
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are recyclingprogressive
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is recyclingprogressive
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have been recyclingperfect progressive
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has been recyclingperfect progressive
Past
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recycledsimple
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had recycledperfect
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was recyclingprogressive
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were recyclingprogressive
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had been recyclingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of recycle
Explanation
When you recycle something, you process it so it can be used again. You might recycle an old tire and make it into a snazzy black knapsack with some very cool skid marks. The prefix re- means again, and when you recycle something, you process it for another cycle of use. The phrase "reduce, reuse, recycle" gives you three ways to prevent waste. When you recycle plastic bottles, they’re melted down and made into new bottles or even furniture or clothing. You might do some creative recycling and turn your old textbooks into a coffee table. When you have your washing machine repeat the wash or rinse cycle, that’s a different recycle.
Vocabulary lists containing recycle
Natural Resources and the Environment - Introductory
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Earth Science - Middle School
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Earth Science: Natural Resources and the Environment
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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:
Their thick bark and elevated canopies offer protection, while smaller fires clear vegetation, recycle nutrients, and create conditions that help new sequoias grow.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026
James Piper, co-host of the Talking Rubbish podcast, co-owner of Ecosurety, said he dislikes BuzzBallz because of how difficult they are to recycle.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Large language models comb popular texts, recycle them into new combinations, and send the repurposed product back to customers, who close the feedback loop with a click.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Management had a short-lived operation outside of Houston called Natura designed to recycle plastic film that can’t be handled in a typical recycling facility.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
“It’s trash and recycle day, so Junie, you get to handle that tonight.”
From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh
The latest “Scary Movie,” which simply recycles the title “Scary Movie,” is as lazy, dumb and offensive as the others.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
Oklo has worked with Los Alamos National Laboratory to validate the reactor’s design, which recycles nuclear waste into energy, using surplus plutonium from the federal stockpile.
From Barron's ● May 26, 2026
The site recovers and recycles silver collected from a nearby site, Sigman said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
Others could be linked to heat driven convection within the mantle as it recycles subducted slabs of Earth's crust.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 20, 2026
She recycles everything, including canvases, sometimes painting over one piece to create a new one.
From "The Sky at Our Feet" by Nadia Hashimi
“I like to think I recycled those images from negative to positive.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
After analysing a plastic recover facility in Manchester with a processing capacity of 35,000 tonnes of plastic a year, for six months, the company found that BuzzBallz contaminated recycled plastic 66% of the time.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Profit in the recent quarter was dented by a $16 million non-cash asset impairment charge related to the company’s decision to relocate its planned second satellite aluminum recycled slab center to Columbus, Miss. from Arizona.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Geological evidence from impacts more than 650 million years old is scarce because Earth's surface is constantly being altered and recycled.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 18, 2026
Maybe she was just matter, and matter gets recycled.
From "Looking for Alaska" by John Green
"It's definitely one of the villains of recycling," said Ambarish Mitra, co-founder of Greyparrot, a waste analytics company which helps recovery facilities.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Autophagy is a natural recycling process that allows cells to remove damaged material and maintain normal function.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
At the heart of the boom is the sprawling eastern Cairo settlement of Manshiyet Nasser, where generations of garbage collectors have built one of the world's most sophisticated informal recycling systems.
From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 2026
Their mostly anonymous work personalized mass-produced material by decorating dog tags and coins, and recycling debris such as discarded shell and bullet cases.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Liyana and Rafik lettered poster-board signs for the Estate Sale while their mother gathered stacks of yellowed newspapers from the corners, throwing them into recycling bins.
From "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye
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.
