rework
Americanverb (used with object)
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to work or form again.
to rework gold.
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to revise or rewrite.
to rework an essay.
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to process again or anew for reuse.
to rework wool.
noun
verb
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to use again in altered form
the theme has been reworked in countless well-known poems
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to rewrite or revise
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to reprocess for use again
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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reworksimple
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reworkssimple
-
have reworkedperfect
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have rewroughtperfect
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has reworkedperfect
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has rewroughtperfect
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am reworkingprogressive
-
are reworkingprogressive
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is reworkingprogressive
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have been reworkingperfect progressive
-
has been reworkingperfect progressive
Past
-
reworkedsimple
-
had reworkedperfect
-
had rewroughtperfect
-
was reworkingprogressive
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were reworkingprogressive
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had been reworkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rework
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:
That relationship became crucial when the two companies set out to rework their technology partnership last year, in a monthslong negotiation that took a series of twists and turns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026
Now, as the burger chain prepares to rework that menu starting Tuesday with even cheaper options, including some for under $3, some see the move as a strength.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 20, 2026
To rework Karl Marx’s famous maxim, sometimes historical events can be tragedy and farce at the same time, and repeat themselves in the same register.
From Salon ● Mar. 15, 2026
Mayor Karen Bass vetoed a similar bid to rework the disciplinary process in 2024.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2026
“Can you get the writers to rework this warehouse scene? Give it to Nala and Scruffy instead of Duke?”
From "Dog Squad" by Chris Grabenstein
A Workday study from January, meanwhile, showed that of the seven hours gained each week from AI productivity, nearly three were given back by corrections and reworks.
From Barron's ● May 7, 2026
As the name suggests, the collection reworks camouflage as a collage-like reflection of culture in public spaces.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
And in the long run, as the company reworks its manufacturing processes, the company says the new diaper may end up being cheaper to make than older models.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
He withdrew it, and yet he takes the theme, which is dark and foreboding, and reworks it in this last piece as a private moment of catharsis.
From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2024
The Compleat Memoirs then reworks the texts of the two Parts into a smooth, chronologically consistent narrative.
From The Notorious Impostor and Diego Redivivus by Settle, Elkanah
The company last month closed its acquisition of the AI cybersecurity company Portkey and reworked CyberArk, which it acquired last summer, as Idira — an identity security service focused on AI agents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
As he reworked the novel, he said the arguments around the closure were all playing out and the characters reflected the complex viewpoints that emerged on both sides.
From BBC ● May 31, 2026
Grande and Robledo also favor Inside Safe but say it is too expensive and needs to be reworked.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
The tech giant is pursuing new research avenues that the company hopes will put its AI models on par with rivals, after inking a reworked deal with ChatGPT parent OpenAI in 2025.
From Barron's ● Apr. 4, 2026
Every morning, my family sat around a large table of reworked red oak and ate either seven-grain cereal, with honey and molasses, or seven-grain pancakes, also with honey and molasses.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
Society shall yet be rewrought and born again.
From History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II by Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
Striking, also, was the effect of this idea as rewrought by the early Ionian philosophers, to whom it was probably transmitted from the Chaldeans through the Phoenicians.
From History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom by White, Andrew Dickson
The specifics of Martha Graham’s choreography notwithstanding, it is the bright openness of Copland’s music, its resolutely optimistic cast—particularly his reworking of the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts”—that has implanted itself in the national imagination.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
By the end of the fittings, Hallyday had recut and resewn all three pieces several times, adjusting shades of white, reworking the skirt’s fabrics and refining the jacket’s cut, which was her biggest challenge.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
The script, which is competing in the best adapted screenplay category, is a reworking of "Save the Green Planet," a 2003 film by Korean writer Jang Joon-hwan.
From Barron's ● Mar. 1, 2026
The new number one is a duet reworking of a track of the same name taken from Fender's third studio album, the Mercury Prize-winning People Watching.
From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2026
As the continents bumped and nudged, sometimes one continental plate would slide over another, pushing ocean floor before it, reworking the landscape for 150 miles or more inland.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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.
