reinvestigate

verb

re·​in·​ves·​ti·​gate (ˌ)rē-in-ˈve-stə-ˌgāt How to pronounce reinvestigate (audio)
reinvestigated; reinvestigating

transitive verb

: to investigate (something) again
… decided to use modern police methods to reinvestigate the case.Robert Wainwright
reinvestigation noun
plural reinvestigations
During the past 30 years, new discoveries and reinvestigations of long-forgotten specimens have coalesced into a flood of transitional fossils. Maureen Greenbaum

Examples of reinvestigate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Her father was gone, too — dead from a heart attack after years of fighting for the police to reinvestigate Debbie’s killing — and her older brother, Ricky, who was once a suspect in the murder, took his own life five years before that. Sarah Viren, New York Times, 5 Dec. 2023 After hearing about The Post’s findings, the daughter of one of the men killed with Bishop said the U.S. needs to reinvestigate its role in what happened to the bodies. Rennie Svirnovskiy, Washington Post, 8 Dec. 2023 Cure spent 16 years in prison before he was exonerated in December 2020 after the Innocence Project reinvestigated his case in partnership with the Broward County Conviction Review Unit, which had been established a year earlier to review claims of wrongful conviction. Alexandra E. Petri, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2023 After The Watchdog inquired last week, Chime reinvestigated his complaints and sent Dixson their results. Dave Lieber, Dallas News, 19 July 2023 From electrifying true-crime documentaries that provoke enough public interest to reinvestigate relic cases to award-winning horror stories based on truth, audiences cannot get enough of true-crime. Deanna Janes, Harper's BAZAAR, 24 July 2023 Unlike in an appeal, CRUs often work with organizations like the Innocence Project and defense attorneys to reinvestigate cases, Bluestine said. N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY, 17 Mar. 2023 Those cases were among the 100 such cases that Boston police reinvestigated over the past few years through a federal grant to revisit old DNA samples with current improved technology. Sean Cotter, BostonGlobe.com, 27 June 2023 Last week, Oregon Solicitor General Benjamin Gutman told Acosta that the Marion County District Attorney’s Office didn’t plan to retry or reindict Gable within a 90-day deadline Acosta had set, but wanted to reserve the right to reinvestigate the case and rearrest or reindict him in the future. oregonlive, 26 Jan. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'reinvestigate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1802, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of reinvestigate was in 1802

Dictionary Entries Near reinvestigate

Cite this Entry

“Reinvestigate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reinvestigate. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

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