reanimate

verb

re·​an·​i·​mate (ˌ)rē-ˈa-nə-ˌmāt 

reanimated; reanimating; reanimates

transitive + intransitive

: to animate or become animated again: such as

a

: to bring (someone or something) back to life or to come back to life

As the defrosting jellyfish seemed to reanimate under the faucet's running water, the restaurant's chef asked if he should salt the boiling water.

—Jason Horowitz

… Nathan would sit in the kitchen … watching Eleanor smoke cigarettes and squeeze lemons into her diet Coke, of which she drank sixty ounces a day—enough, as Major Ray often declared, to reanimate a dead body.

—Michael Chabon

b

: to regain vitality or to restore vigor and zest to (someone or something)

When she reanimates, the words just spill from her, small speedy bubbles sliding under and around each other …

—Andrew Corsello

… serves to reanimate the old debates about the relationship between form and content …

—Jed Perl

reanimation

(ˌ)rē-ˌa-nə-ˈmā-shən 

noun

plural reanimations

… discusses the post-Soviet decline, fall, and reanimation of the notorious Soviet secret police agency.

—Roland Green

This isn't just a captivating retelling; it's a creative reanimation of these indelible characters who are still breathing down our necks across the millennia.

—Ron Charles

Synonyms

• revive
• resurrect
• renew

Examples of reanimate in a Sentence

the new multiplex has begun to reanimate the shabby neighborhood

Recent Examples on the Web

Jacob Elordi portrays the Creature, a collage of body parts reanimated during a storm. —Kristen Tauer, Footwear News, 24 Oct. 2025

The jiangshi were corpses suffering from rigor mortis and decomposition, reanimated when a soul couldn’t leave after a violent death. —Tom Duszynski, The Conversation, 16 Oct. 2025

Upon reanimating the dragon, magic returns, but the animal begins burning the city in a shot eerily similar to Daenerys’ dragon burning King’s Landing. —Zoe Kaplan, PEOPLE, 11 Oct. 2025

More concerning, Russian nuclear saber rattling has reanimated concerns in Europe and elsewhere that revisionist powers might use nuclear coercion to pursue wars of aggression. —Mariano-Florentino CuÉllar, Foreign Affairs, 25 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1611, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for reanimate

• inanimate
• animate

Medical Definition

reanimate

transitive verb

re·​an·​i·​mate (ˈ)rē-ˈan-ə-ˌmāt 

reanimated; reanimating

: to restore to life : revive

reanimation

-ˌan-ə-ˈmā-shən 

noun