reinstate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
reinstates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
reinstated,
past participle, past
-
reinstating
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
reinstatesimple
-
reinstatessimple
-
have reinstatedperfect
-
has reinstatedperfect
-
am reinstatingprogressive
-
are reinstatingprogressive
-
is reinstatingprogressive
-
have been reinstatingperfect progressive
-
has been reinstatingperfect progressive
Past
-
reinstatedsimple
-
had reinstatedperfect
-
was reinstatingprogressive
-
were reinstatingprogressive
-
had been reinstatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of reinstate
Explanation
When you reinstate someone, you return that person to a position or job. A principal might reinstate a laid off teacher when the school starts hiring again. Bosses can reinstate employees, countries can reinstate kings and queens, and governments can reinstate, or bring back, old laws. For example, during times of war the United States could very well reinstate the draft, which is not currently a law but has been in the past. Although it's not as common as reinstate, the word instate, from which it comes, means "to put someone in a certain state or condition."
Vocabulary lists containing reinstate
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
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This Week In Culture: August 8–14, 2020
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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:
A “whistleblower” is seeking the counsel of Michael and Olivia to sue a tech company called Colt AI, demanding they reinstate safety guardrails and an ethics committee.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
On Monday, they announced they were suing to reinstate their access.
From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2026
An independent arbitrator ordered the Washington Post to reinstate Karen Attiah, finding the newspaper wrongly terminated the columnist over comments she made following the shooting death of Charlie Kirk.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Harry waged a years-long, ultimately unsuccessful legal battle with the government to reinstate his publicly funded security.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
The soldiers’ job was to reinstate the country’s democratically elected government, in the process stripping power from the junta—a government composed of military leaders—whose corrupt and cruel reign had gone on for three years.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
The bank reinstates BlueScope with a buy rating and A$37.70/share target.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
Even if the president reinstates most levies, the Treasury might have to refund what it has already collected.
From Barron's ● Feb. 21, 2026
That language clearly reinstates any federal employee who was either told they’d be laid off during the shutdown or actually laid off.
From Slate ● Dec. 22, 2025
The Heisman Trust reinstates the trophy to Reggie Bush and USC, three years after the era of forbidding college athletes from receiving compensation ended.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
It is by no means strictly correct to say that memory ever reinstates the past.
From Illusions A Psychological Study by James Sully
It was removed from a sports photography festival in the northern French town of Deauville before a court ordered it reinstated.
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2026
But after City flexed its legal might in a drawn-out appeals process that landed before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the club was cleared and reinstated in European competition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
The company, which buys land to restore it to nature, said a traditional orchard "that once stood on the land but was lost over a century ago" would be reinstated.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
The EPA already reinstated the grants after Lin issued a preliminary injunction June 23, 2025.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
In the first year after Nicolae Ceaujescu’s death, when abortion was reinstated in Romania, there was one abortion for every twenty-two Romanians.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
The party's proposals include reinstating short sentences for shoplifters and ensuring serious offenders serve their full sentences.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
If Fedorov and Syrskiy can’t work together, then reinstating Fedorov would require dismissing his top general, whom he handpicked for the job.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Speaking during a public comment period Tuesday, Umesh Vazirani, a UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, said “the academic case for reinstating the SAT is, in my view, overwhelming.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
“These problems, they have to be addressed, but you don’t address them by reinstating the SAT,” Birnir said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
But his contrition did not last long, for the next day he informed us he was reinstating all the charges against us.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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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.
