Did you know?

The concept of retrofitting became an urgent necessity during World War II, when weapons technology was advancing at an intense pace and planes and ships were becoming outdated even before their construction was complete, and the only solution was to retrofit the completed craft with the brand-new technology. Retrofitting was revived on a massive scale during the energy crisis of the 1970s, when new features were added to millions of old houses to make them more energy-efficient. Retrofitting is thus different from merely renovating, which may not involve any new technology at all.

Examples of retrofit in a Sentence

The factory has been retrofitted to meet the new safety regulations. We can retrofit your car with the new fuel system.

Recent Examples on the Web And that, in turn, would bode well for a rising regional movement to retrofit sprawling Northeast Ohio suburbs designed in the middle decades of the 20th century around the automobile as the primary mode of transportation. — Steven Litt, cleveland, 21 Feb. 2022 But residents who already paid to retrofit their own basements with backflow preventers are now frustrated. — Miriam Marini, Detroit Free Press, 8 Apr. 2022 Shipping’s record profits from the supply chain chaos could be used to retrofit ships with zero-emission cargo sails, for example, or to scale up the development of hydrogen or ammonia as bunker fuel. — Aurora Almendral, Quartz, 1 Dec. 2021 Governments partnered with drugmakers, pouring in billions of dollars to procure raw materials, finance clinical trials, and retrofit factories. — BostonGlobe.com, 21 Mar. 2021 Governments partnered with drugmakers, pouring in billions of dollars to procure raw materials, finance clinical trials and retrofit factories. — New York Times, 21 Mar. 2021 Other researchers, Niles and Ehlmann among them, see potential for designs that simply use an existing consumer electric vehicle’s chassis and then retrofit it with adaptations needed for extraterrestrial operations. — Maddie Bender, Scientific American, 17 Feb. 2022 There are, however, retrofit EMV technology solutions through which compliance is painless and affordable. — Elie Y. Katz, Forbes, 26 Jan. 2022 Such connections would help retrofit a sprawling urban and suburban region whose streets and public spaces have been designed for too long to cater primarily to the automobile. — Steven Litt, cleveland, 21 Jan. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'retrofit.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Learn More About retrofit