reuse
Americanverb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Explanation
To reuse something is to make use of it more than once, or for a subsequent time. Asking for a plastic bag at the grocery store might seem wasteful, but you can reuse that bag many times. Instead of throwing something away after using it once, ask yourself if there's any way you can reuse it. You can reuse a paper towel roll by putting it in your hamster's cage so he can crawl through and chew on it. You can reuse containers like glass jars and plastic tubs by storing leftovers in them. You can even reuse kitchen scraps by composting them and using the compost in your garden.
Vocabulary lists containing reuse
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:
SpaceXAI promised that it would build a water reuse facility, but that project has been suspended.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
"Personally, I say use gems as they're bigger and more impactful, plus you can peel them off at the end of night and reuse them in the morning."
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
These include solid state electronic cooling systems with no moving parts, devices that convert heat into electricity, chip based electronics, and cogeneration systems that capture and reuse waste heat from industrial processes.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
Musk’s company has been able to reuse expensive materials between launches, while China has been forced to rely on disposable rockets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
She’s probably doing it because her mom wants to be able to reuse it.
From "Muffled" by Jennifer Gennari
RadixArk’s inference engine reuses KV cache by organizing conversation snippets into a filing system called a Radix tree.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026
She also reuses the old cards to new ones and has let go of old cassettes and CDs.
From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2026
The human brain repeatedly reuses the same cognitive "blocks" across many different situations, combining and recombining them to form new patterns of behavior.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 28, 2025
Sometimes she will ask Valdez to scan a shirt she may need for a character; other times she reuses assets that already exist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2023
Like well-run factories, cells are thrifty; part of the cellular machinery chops up and reuses anything that is floating around inside, including bits of the cell and foreign invaders such as viruses.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Buyers pay this premium on aluminum every time it is recycled and reused.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
The association said the kit rejected "reused designs", and that Sudu had worked with the association and fans "to understand the DNA of the nation".
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
"There's no external energy input and it can be reused for batch after batch of feedstock," said Kate Griffiths, a chemical analyst at the Royal Mint.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
These studies may contain reused text, unusual or awkward language, and fabricated data or images.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 16, 2026
Discarded tin cans are easy: they end up reused as containers.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
She works with a range of designers and brands, but says she also keeps costs down by reusing items as much as possible.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
"By reusing plastic waste that is already in Hawaii, we can reduce the environmental and economic impacts of transporting waste plastics from the islands, incinerating it or dumping it in Hawaii's overflowing landfills."
From Science Daily ● Jun. 28, 2026
Rubino says she’s aiming to economize as much as possible — and that means everything from buying lower-priced candy in bulk to reusing baskets from previous Easters.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 2, 2026
Japan has a poor recycling rate, reusing not even 20 percent of municipal waste, according to the National Institute for Environmental Studies.
From Barron's ● Mar. 25, 2026
“Back home, we think they keep reusing the old footage because the Capitol can't show what’s really there now,” says Bonnie.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
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.
