redo
Americanverb (used with object)
-
redoes,
present (3rd person singular)
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redid,
past
-
redone,
past participle
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redoing
present participle
-
to do again; repeat.
-
to revise or reconstruct.
to redo the production schedule.
-
to redecorate or remodel; renovate.
It will cost too much to redo both the kitchen and bathroom.
noun
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redos,
plural
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redo's
plural
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the act or an instance of redoing.
-
something redone.
verb
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to do over again
-
informal to redecorate, esp thoroughly
we redid the house last summer
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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redosimple
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redoessimple
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have redoneperfect
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has redoneperfect
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am redoingprogressive
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are redoingprogressive
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is redoingprogressive
-
have been redoingperfect progressive
-
has been redoingperfect progressive
Past
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redidsimple
-
had redoneperfect
-
was redoingprogressive
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were redoingprogressive
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had been redoingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of redo
Explanation
To redo something is to do it over again, or to decorate it in a new way. You might redo your nail polish if the old layer is chipped, or redo your grandparents' living room if they're tired of the same old decor. Thank goodness for second chances! Whenever you start over on a project from the beginning, you redo it: "I painted over that self-portrait, because I want to redo it." Or, you might redo your English essay if you bombed the first draft. The word redo is most often used in terms of renovating a space: "Let's redo your kitchen! We can paint the cabinets and use that big piece of marble for the countertop."
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:
When asked by the Wall Street Journal Magazine in 2024 if there was a role he’d like to redo, his answer was “La La Land.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
A year later, he decided to redo them with a more lyrical quality, resulting in the band’s breakup.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
The upshot: The redo to the Fed’s favorite price gauge, the so-called core PCE index, is likely to show inflation rising a little more slowly this year than previously reported.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
What you end up having to do is actually go through it again and redo all of it from scratch.
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
Most of the girls still had to change and redo their hair.
From "Eleanor & Park" by Rainbow Rowell
This recycled trash is no treasure, but I’m betting the majority of this redo’s audience will be young enough to find ’90s-style schlock adorably quaint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2025
Additionally, a backlog of companies waiting to IPO, which leads to debt stack redos, has been building and M&A is growing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 6, 2026
The Labyrinth Canyon-Gemini Bridges travel management plan is the highest profile of these redos so far.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 24, 2023
If you just practice your swoops a little bit, and you get infinite numbers of redos when you're swooping, you can just keep swooping to your heart's content.
From Salon ● Dec. 4, 2021
“Think about what you can save on redos alone” — which could translate to more investment in design and materials.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 30, 2019
Only endless remakes, redos, fusions, whatever crap they call them now.
From Nature ● Jun. 27, 2017
He said construction of the warehouse project must stop while the county redoes the report in a manner that complies with the law.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2024
He meticulously redoes the foul lines with a string and wheelbarrow of paint, which Wilson prefers over chalk.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 23, 2022
Poppy, the waitress and single mother in Alexa Martin’s Fumbled, redoes her own kitchen with the help of Pinterest and free classes at the local Home Depot:
From Slate ● Nov. 27, 2020
She redoes her ponytail on the mound between pitches before launching her blistering fastball and her spookily precise off-speed stuff.
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2020
It takes me four tries to get the tie on, and Dad still redoes it when he sees me.
From "Linked" by Gordon Korman
When the Pratts recently redid their bathroom, Gina Pratt explained, Harvey couldn’t hold back from sculpting small, figurative frescoes into the spackle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
"We redid our analysis at multiple spatial and taxonomic scales," Baldwin said.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 3, 2024
In the 1920s, they redid the waterfront, opened it up, got rid of some of the piers.
From Slate ● Nov. 28, 2024
‘Extreme Makeover’ redid a home to make room for five orphans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2024
"For you. I already told you they redid it."
From "We Are Okay" by Nina LaCour
Even projects that were close to being completed had to be redone to comply retroactively.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
They picked up the waterfront property as one of their “getaway destinations” and had it redone in the “classic tradition of the Adirondacks.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
All HGV drivers must complete a D4 before getting their licence for the first time, while drivers over 45 must have them redone periodically to prove they are still safe to operate the vehicles.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
But, Goldberger goes on, “neither Trump’s arch nor his redone reflecting pool nor his gaggle of statues is a meaningful new layer of history.”
From Slate ● May 18, 2026
She would have the entire staircase—no, the entire apartment—stripped bare and redone.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
This applied to rearranging my childhood bedroom furniture after reading about feng shui in a magazine, redoing my makeup when we were already late and, eventually, cooking.
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026
"I write the scripts, I plan the scenes, and keep redoing things because the AI generation messes up constantly," they wrote.
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2026
If we get it for $1.3 million, we could put another $300,000 into gutting and insulating it, redoing the electrics and upgrading the windows and doors, and do the rest over time.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 21, 2026
Lay’s is redoing the bags too, ditching the crinkly sheen for a heavier, matte finish emblazoned with pictures of potatoes and chips.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
He’d had to restrain himself from redoing the parts she’d already done.
From "Ruby Holler" by Sharon Creech
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.
