recycle

verb, noun — 8 senses

recycle

verb

UK /ˌɹiːˈsaɪkəl/ · US /ɹəˈsaɪkəl/

Etymology From re- + cycle.

7 senses
  1. 1To break down and reuse component materials.
  2. 2To reuse as a whole.
  3. 3To collect or place in a bin for recycling.
  4. 4To be recycled.
  5. 5To discard into a recycling bin.
  6. 6To put (a person) through a course of training again.
  7. 7To skate toward the rear of the engagement zone to…
1

To break down and reuse component materials.

  • Both paper and plastic can be recycled.
  • Recycling and reusing the material eliminates the need to import aggregate, a strategy which has avoided over 50,000 lorry movements on local roads.2024 May 29, “Network News: HS2's Bromford Tunnel portal complete ready for TBM breakthrough...”, in RAIL, number 1010, page 14:
2

Figuratively To reuse as a whole.

  • Jokes are recycled so frequently, it’s as if comedy writing was eating a hole in the ozone layer: If the audience had a nickel for every time a character on one side of the frame says something could never happen as it simultaneously happens on the other side of the frame, they’d have enough to pay the surcharge for the movie’s badly implemented 3-D.2012 July 12, Sam Adams, “Ice Age: Continental Drift”, in AV Club:
  • He [Huw Jones] was hauled down in England’s 22 but, when the ball was quickly recycled, [Finn] Russell’s miss-pass gave Sean Maitland the room to score in the left corner.2018 February 24, Paul Rees, “Finn Russell masterminds historic Scotland victory over England”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2018:
1 more example
  • Now populists recycle communist verities: the fetishisation of working-class culture, the vision of a good “people” fighting a bad elite, the belief that the state should control business and the dismissal of parliamentary democracy as a bourgeois sham.2025 September 13, Simon Kuper, “How Maga rewrote the Little Red Book”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 18:
3

To collect or place in a bin for recycling.

  • Most cans, bottles, and jars need to be rinsed, so recycle while you are doing dishes.1990, Laurence Sombke, The Solution to Pollution: 101 Things You Can Do to Clean Up Your Environment, Sandy, Oregon: MasterMedia, p 22
  • Recycling is no longer a chore when this convenient recycling center is a fixture in your kitchen.2003, The Complete Guide to Easy Woodworking Projects: 50 Projects You Can Build With Hand Power Tools, Minneapolis: Creative Publishing International, page 270:
2 more examples
  • You'll find many configurations, including models that hide behind a single cabinet door and conceal from one to three bins, so you can recycle at the same spot where you dispose of trash.2006, Elaine Martin Petrowski, Design Ideas for Home Storage, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Creative Homeowner, page 133:
  • Who cares if you’re good-looking if you don’t recycle? Essentially, yes. Car-sharing, wearing patchwork clothes (signifying mending rather than throwing away) and carrying reusable coffee cups all came up as signs of environmentally virtuous behaviour.2026 March 2, “The greenest flags: virtue signals that help you find love – from patchwork clothes to car sharing”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
4

Ergative To be recycled.

  • Sulfur recycles in the sulfur cycle.
5

US To discard into a recycling bin.

6

Government, Military, Politics, War US To put (a person) through a course of training again.

  • Recruits cannot fail this portion of their training and become a Marine. Anyone who fails may be “recycled” through training up to three more times to try again, but will be sent home if success in this program is not achieved.2006, Barbara Schading, Richard Schading, A Civilian's Guide to the U.S. Military, page 102:
7

To skate toward the rear of the engagement zone to maximize the time that an opposing jammer must spend before returning to the action.

Derived terms
ecycle, Freecycle, freecycle, grasscycle, recyclability, recyclable, recyclate, recycle bin, recyclebot, recycle day, recycle man, recycle shop, recycle time, recycle truck, recyclic, recycling, recyclist
Hyponyms
downcycle, upcycle

recycle

noun

Etymology From re- + cycle.

1

An act of recycling.

  • First, there will be little reaction in the settler so that the concentrations of soluble constituents in the recycle stream are the same as those in the bioreactor. Because all soluble concentrations are the same, the recycle of soluble constituents around the system has no impact on system performance.2011, C. P. Leslie Grady, Jr.; Glen T. Daigger; Nancy G. Love, Biological Wastewater Treatment, Third Edition, page 189:
  • If the agency does not approve recycle of the cadet who failed to qualify, the cadet is sent home and is not hired by the department who sponsored him or her in the academy.2020, Gary Gray, MUD on MY BADGE:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

Learn more