rejuvenate
verb
Did you know?
The word rejuvenate is intended for mature audiences—that is, it applies to people and things that are no longer green to this world. While there is no true Fountain of Youth that can turn back the clock, rejuvenation can at least restore a bit of youthful appearance, health, or vigor. Rejuvenate originated as a combination of the prefix re-, which means "again," and the Latin juvenis, meaning "young." (It will come as no surprise that juvenis is also an ancestor of juvenile and junior). Its first-known use in the mid-18th century was in reference to "certain Potions" rejuvenating "the noble Parts" of those suffering prolonged ailments, but it didn't take long for the word to see life outside of medical contexts. Today one might rejuvenate an old car with a fresh coat of paint, a losing football team with a new quarterback, or depleted soil with some nitrogen-fixing legumes, to name just a few examples.
Did you know?
Juvenis, Latin for "young", can be seen in a word such as juvenile. Rejuvenation is something that can be carried out on a creaky old house, a clunker of a car, a sluggish career, a weak economy, or a company that's lost its edge, but rejuvenate and rejuvenation are probably used most often for talking about our physical selves. Ads for lotions promise skin rejuvenation; diet-book covers show rejuvenated (or maybe just young) models bursting with health. We still seem to be searching for that "Fuente de la Juventud" that Juan Ponce de León failed to discover five hundred years ago.
Examples of rejuvenate in a Sentence
Brett Owens, Forbes.com, 26 Apr. 2025
Drag slider compare photos Wildland fires have long been integral to New Jersey's Pinelands, says the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, helping to rejuvenate its ecosystem by adding nutrients to the soil and creating a habitat that is essential for many species.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Apr. 2025
The nature of guilt proves elusive as the archivists learn of the river chalet, a lovely little lodge where a cadre of young, industrious camp administrators went to rest and recharge, to rejuvenate before returning to work long and hard amid the smoke billowing from the crematoria.
—Karen D'souza, Mercury News, 18 Apr. 2025
Renegotiating the city’s relationship with cars has the power to rejuvenate New York.
—Justin Davidson, Curbed, 18 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rejuvenate
Cite this Entry
“Rejuvenate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rejuvenate. Accessed 5 May. 2025.
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rejuvenate
verb
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rejuvenate
verb
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