rejuvenate

/rɪˈdʒuvɪneɪt/

/rɪˈdʒuvɪneɪt/

Other forms: rejuvenated; rejuvenating; rejuvenates

When you make something young again or give it more life and energy, you rejuvenate it. For example, you can often rejuvenate a not-quite-dead plant, bringing it back to health with some water and some TLC.

One way to remember the word rejuvenate is to pick it apart to its heart, the juve. This juve sounds like juvenile — which refers to youth. Add the prefix re, which means "again," and the "ate" suffix, which stands for "do or make." Put them all together and you get "make young again" — the meaning of rejuvenate. We all want to be younger, as witnessed by all the ads for products that promise to rejuvenate us through special cosmetics or foods or exercise equipment.

Definitions of rejuvenate

1. verb

   make younger or more youthful
   “The contact with his grandchildren rejuvenated him”

   antonyms:

   age

   make older

   type of:

   regenerate, revitalize

   restore strength
2. verb

   return to life; get or give new life or energy
   synonyms: regenerate, restore

   types:

   reincarnate, renew

   cause to appear in a new form

   resurrect, revive

   restore from a depressed, inactive, or unused state

   republish

   revive (a cancelled will or a libel)

   type of:

   regenerate, renew

   reestablish on a new, usually improved, basis or make new or like new
3. verb

   become young again
   “The old man rejuvenated when he became a grandfather”

   type of:

   regenerate

   undergo regeneration
4. verb

   develop youthful topographical features
   “the land rejuvenated”

   type of:

   change

   undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature
5. verb

   cause (a stream or river) to erode, as by an uplift of the land
   type of:

   provoke, stimulate

   provide the needed stimulus for