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reinsure

American  
[ree-in-shoor, -shur] / ˌri ɪnˈʃʊər, -ˈʃɜr /

verb (used with object)

  • reinsures,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • reinsured,
    past participle,  past
  • reinsuring
    present participle
  1. to insure again.

  2. Insurance. to insure under a contract by which a first insurer is relieved of part or all of the risk, which devolves upon another insurer.


reinsure British  
/ ˌriːɪnˈʃʊə, -ʃɔː /

verb

  1. to insure again

  2. (of an insurer) to obtain partial or complete insurance coverage from another insurer for (a risk on which a policy has already been issued)

"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

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of reinsure

First recorded in 1745–55; re- + insure

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:

Development Finance Corporation, which supports the government’s international development efforts, will continue to reinsure the program while working to bring on other partners “in the coming days,” the DFC said External link.

From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026

Apollo said regarding Athene: “Like Ajit Jain, we have been vocal about our decision in recent years not to reinsure run-off annuity books at prices that don’t make economic sense.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 25, 2025

For example, rates to reinsure U.S. property catastrophe risk jumped 50% this year as climate change takes its toll.

From Reuters ● Jul. 19, 2023

Yet when the cost of medical catastrophes is more than ordinary Americans’ insurance coverage can sustain, the United States fails to reinsure their health plans.

From Slate ● May 15, 2023

It has tried to undercut, has been badly hit by a long series of small fires, and it hasn't been able to reinsure.

From Howards End by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

The company reinsures both property and casualty and life and health insurance policies, and does business in more than 20 countries.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026

The risks were reinsured with KKR-owned Global Atlantic, which then reinsured some of the long-term care liabilities with an unnamed “highly rated third-party global reinsurance partner,” according to its press release.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2025

“I reinsured my neck this week, and X-rays showed a change in the vertebra,” Bass said at the time.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 4, 2022

Reinsurers, which insure the insurers, are likely to face the bulk of any claims as "high-severity exposures are typically reinsured", Fitch said.

From Reuters ● Jul. 12, 2021

The captive is said to have reinsured the obligations, meaning that it now has the duty to pay the future claims.

From New York Times ● Apr. 11, 2015

It was accepted as an accommodation, and I reinsured one half, as you see, sir.

From White Ashes by Sidney R. (Sidney Robinson) Kennedy

Last year, it set aside reserves of $15 billion to pay for the higher-than-expected cost of reinsuring long-term care policies in its finance arm, GE Capital.

From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2019

The newly disclosed trouble surfaced in one of those, a reinsurance unit, North American Life and Health, mainly because of the higher-than-expected cost of reinsuring long-term care policies sold by other insurers.

From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2018

Life insurers that are owned by their policyholders, called mutual companies, do not have that pressure, and some, like State Farm, Guardian and New York Life, appear not to be reinsuring through captives at all.

From New York Times ● Jun. 12, 2013

The Hartford said that it had sold its life insurance business to Prudential, and was no longer in the business of writing new life policies and reinsuring them.

From New York Times ● Jun. 12, 2013

In some states the reinsuring company becomes liable to an action by the beneficiary named in the original policy.

From Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman by Albert Sidney Bolles

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