Meanings
present singular third person regains · participle present regaining · participle past regained · past regained
- transitiveTo get back; to recover possession of.
Sarkozy's total will be seen as a personal failure. It is the first time an outgoing president has failed to win a first-round vote in the past 50 years and makes it harder for Sarkozy to regain momentum.
2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in The Guardian1 more example
DUKAT: I blame no one but myself. I was indiscreet. I compromised myself and have been punished accordingly. If someone under my command had behaved so outrageously, I would do the same thing to him. Besides, I assure you, this is only a temporary setback. Everything I have lost, I will regain. It's only a matter of time.
1996, “Return to Grace”, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, season 4, episode 14 (Science Fiction), →OCLCSynonyms: resume
plural regains
- The act or process of regaining something.
The samples with SAPs showed a regain in strength when stored in an RH of more than 90%.
2021, Sandra Van Vlierberghe, Arn Mignon, Superabsorbent Polymers, page 1553 more examples
Patients who plateau after weight loss are more likely to blame the regain on something that they are responsible for – the wrong course of action they took or a specic oversight that they kept repeating–rather than who they are.
2019, Sameera Khan, Regain Be GoneBy beginning deeper, this allows the opposition to start and build much higher, naturally luring them away from their own goal. As long as the actions after a regain are then quick, forward, and performed with quality, counter-attacks can prove a particularly useful attacking strategy to win football matches.
2021, Sam Hudson, Football in a PandemicNegative collective memories are effective, as much as positive memories, in choosing a regain for lost heritage building associated with them.
2022, Antonella Versaci, Hocine Bougdah, Natsuko Akagawa, Conservation of Architectural Heritage, page 375 - businessThe amount of width a woven cloth grows by when the fibers swell, used to determine the width of the reed to use in weaving.
In particular, at high humidities the regain of wool is lower.
2008, J. W. S. Hearle, W E Morton, Physical Properties of Textile Fibres, page 1902 more examples
The number of ends per inch may vary to some slight extent at different places in the width of the cloth and in different pieces woven to the same particulars , but if the regain is correctly estimated , the calculated reed to be used will be the same, unless a special reed has been used in weaving the cloth.
1912, National Association of Cotton Manufacturers, Transactions of the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers, page 105Because of the fiber price per pound, and the size of the lots, the regain must be determined accurately.
2017, Sabit Adanur, Wellington Sears Handbook of Industrial Textiles, page 590
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo get back; to recover possession of.
More synonyms by meaning
verbcome upon after searching; find the location of something that was missed or lost
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Frenchregaigner
- Englishregain
From Middle French regaigner (French regagner). By surface analysis, re- + gain.
More words from Middle French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek ἀναλαμβάνω
- ἀναλαμβάνω (analambánō)to get back, to recover possession of
Bulgarian възвръщам си
- възвръщам си (văzvrăštam si)to get back, to recover possession of
Catalan reconquerir
- reconquerirto get back, to recover possession of
Dutch herkrijgen
- herkrijgento get back, to recover possession of
Finnish saada takaisin
- saada takaisinto get back, to recover possession of
French reconquérir, reprendre
- reconquérirto get back, to recover possession of
- reprendreto get back, to recover possession of
German wiedergewinnen
- wiedergewinnento get back, to recover possession of
Italian riprendere, riappropriarsi
- riprendereto get back, to recover possession of
- riappropriarsito get back, to recover possession of
- recuperareto get back, to recover possession of
- riguadagnareto get back, to recover possession of
- riavereto get back, to recover possession of
Polish odzyskać
- odzyskaćto get back, to recover possession of
Portuguese reconquistar
- reconquistarto get back, to recover possession of
Spanish reconseguir
- reconseguirto get back, to recover possession of
Swedish återfå, återvinna
- återfåto get back, to recover possession of
- återvinnato get back, to recover possession of
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with regain
Anagrams
Cite this entry
regain. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/regain
“regain.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/regain. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “regain,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/regain.
Source: regain on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.