recover

What it means

1. transitiveTo get back, to regain (a physical thing; in astronomy and navigation, sight of a thing or a signal).

   After days of inquiries, he finally recovered his lost wallet.

   4 more examples

   For days telescopes surveyed the skies to recover the small asteroid.

   And Dauid recouered all that the Amalekites had caried away: and Dauid reſcued his two wiues.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 30:18, column 1

   Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago. Next day she found her way to their lodgings and tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   All the comrades of the Party must strive with maximum courage and unswerving determination, together with our compatriots of the whole country, to carry out our historic task of recovering the mainland and reshaping the Chinese nation.

   Free China Weekly

   1979 December 16, Ching-kuo Chiang, “Chairman Chiang Ching-kuo's Opening Address to the KMT Plenum”, in 自由中國週報 [Free China Weekly], volume XX, number 49, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3, column 1

2. transitiveTo salvage, to extricate, to rescue (a thing or person).

   They recovered three of the explorers very much alive, then another, wracked with severe hypothermia, who was taken to hospital.

   1 more example

   Network Rail doesn't expect the line through Carmont to open for around a month, as it faces the mammoth task of recovering the two power cars and four coaches from ScotRail's wrecked train, repairing bridge 325, stabilising earthworks around the landslip, and replacing the track.

   2020 August 26, “Network News: Mid-September before line reopens, says Network Rail”, in Rail, page 10

3. transitiveTo replenish to, resume (a good state of mind or body).

   At the top of the hill I asked to stop for a few minutes to recover my strength.

   1 more example

   Whether you need to recover from a stressful day, a strenuous workout or even an injury or surgery, restorative yoga may be just the thing for you.

   2017 February 17, Dana Santas, “Recovering from surgery or stress? Yoga can help”, in CNN

In a sentence

After days of inquiries, he finally recovered his lost wallet.

Where it comes from

1. Middle Englishrecover
2. Latinrecuperāre
3. Old Frenchrecovrer
4. Anglo-Normanrecoverer
5. Middle Englishrecoveren
6. Englishrecover

From Middle English recoveren, rekeveren, from Anglo-Norman recoverer and Old French recovrer, from Latin recuperāre, alternative form of reciperāre. Doublet of recuperate. The noun is from Middle English recover, from the verb.

First known use: 14th–17th c.