rehabilitate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
rehabilitates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rehabilitated,
past participle, past
-
rehabilitating
present participle
-
to restore to a condition of good health, ability to work, or the like.
-
to restore to good condition, operation, or management, as a bankrupt business.
- Synonyms:
- refurbish, reconstruct, recondition, restore, salvage
-
to reestablish the good reputation of (a person, one's character or name, etc.).
-
to restore formally to former capacity, standing, rank, rights, or privileges.
verb (used without object)
-
rehabilitates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rehabilitated,
past participle, past
-
rehabilitating
present participle
verb
-
to help (a person who has acquired a disability or addiction or who has just been released from prison) to readapt to society or a new job, as by vocational guidance, retraining, or therapy
-
to restore to a former position or rank
-
to restore the good reputation of
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
nonrehabilitationnoun
-
rehabilitationnoun
-
rehabilitatornoun
-
nonrehabilitativeadjective
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rehabilitativeadjective
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unrehabilitatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
rehabilitatesimple
-
rehabilitatessimple
-
have rehabilitatedperfect
-
has rehabilitatedperfect
-
am rehabilitatingprogressive
-
are rehabilitatingprogressive
-
is rehabilitatingprogressive
-
have been rehabilitatingperfect progressive
-
has been rehabilitatingperfect progressive
Past
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rehabilitatedsimple
-
had rehabilitatedperfect
-
was rehabilitatingprogressive
-
were rehabilitatingprogressive
-
had been rehabilitatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rehabilitate
1570–80; < Medieval Latin rehabilitātus, past participle of rehabilitāre to restore. See re-, habilitate
Explanation
If you have been in a bad accident or have an addiction problem, you may go away for a stretch of time to rehabilitate yourself or, in other words, bring yourself back to health. Though we hear a lot about rehabilitation or "rehab" in the press in connection with drugs or alcohol, the word rehabilitate has a lot of other meanings. You can rehabilitate a building's structure by reinforcing it with steel beams, or rehabilitate your bad reputation by staying after school to help clean up the grounds.
Vocabulary lists containing rehabilitate
"A Retrieved Reformation" by O. Henry
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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:
Schmitt: I’m glad you’re trying to rehabilitate the witness, but it’s not your time.
From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2026
Wintour had worked to rehabilitate his image, and finally the moment had arrived: a multimillion-dollar party in his honor and a legacy-enshrining exhibit, both held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
"The Authority's specialised teams have begun the technical and operational assessment of the airport, its facilities and systems, in preparation for developing a plan to rehabilitate it," Hasri said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 9, 2026
Blair, whose IMDb site lists dozens of movies and television shows dating back to 1968, founded the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation in 2003 to rehabilitate and rescue abandoned and abused animals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
It is a place for raptors to rehabilitate.
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
“I’m usually not a guy who rehabilitates someone when he writes about them,” Wolff told David Remnick on the New Yorker Radio Hour in July.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 15, 2025
Also in the field of women’s monstrosity, there’s Madeline Miller’s Circe and other contemporary feminist retellings, fiction that rehabilitates female villains of legend and literature, from Lady Macbeth to Baba Yaga to Japanese yokai.
From Slate ● Oct. 28, 2024
The organization rescues and rehabilitates sea lions and elephant seal pups.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2024
The way she rehabilitates soils and water contaminated with oil and other chemicals is relatively simple.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2022
Fire destroys falsehood,—that is to say, sophistry,—and rehabilitates truth, scattering the darkness.
From Thoughts on Art and Life by Leonardo da Vinci
His attorney Michael Beckman once called Davis “the most rehabilitated inmate I’ve ever represented.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
This looked like a humiliation ritual to me: Crowley wasn’t polling competitively even when he was actively campaigning, and it seemed unlikely that his brand could be rehabilitated with such little time left.
From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026
The party rehabilitated him in the wake of Mao's death, tapping him for jobs at the Ministry of Petroleum and State Economic Commission.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said he had been rehabilitated, adding he had "shown contrition for his crimes".
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Started telling me how I shouldn’t worry, because Sister got him totally rehabilitated.
From "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss
He spent all of the 2024 season and the first half of the 2025 season rehabilitating from elbow surgery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
Ligon grew up in Ethel and spent summers during college rehabilitating wildlife in Costa Rica and Louisiana.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
The Zambian segment of the Lobito Corridor -- often described as the missing link -- is not on LAR's near-term agenda, he added, citing the scale and cost of rehabilitating the rail infrastructure.
From Barron's ● May 7, 2026
Sea otter mentorship is at the forefront of a formal partnership between the Aquarium of the Pacific and Monterey Bay Aquarium, which has been rehabilitating sea otters since the 1980s, according to Long.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 29, 2026
This Circle needs to know that Peter Driscal is not rehabilitating well, either physically or emotionally.
From "Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
