reverse engineer

verb

reverse engineered; reverse engineering; reverse engineers

transitive verb

: to disassemble and examine or analyze in detail (a product or device) to discover the concepts involved in manufacture usually in order to produce something similar

reverse engineering noun

Examples of reverse engineer in a Sentence

They reverse engineered the software.

Recent Examples on the Web

His answer was, in a sense, to navigate them backward, reverse engineering some of the routes and shell corporations that brought American goods to Afghanistan in the first place. — Emily Watlington, ARTnews.com, 24 Sep. 2026

This creates a window for threat actors to attempt to rapidly reverse engineer patches and develop exploits ahead of downstream stable releases. — Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 9 Sep. 2026

The case was cracked using investigative genetic genealogy, a combination of DNA analysis and paper trail research that has been used over the past decade to reverse engineer a person’s identity. — Chris Boyette, CNN Money, 25 July 2026

The way out of macro paralysis is to define your own endgame and reverse engineer back to today. — Jason Sisneros, Forbes.com, 21 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for reverse engineer

• adhere
• ameer
• amir
• appear
• arrear
• astir
• austere
• career
• cashier
• cohere
• compere
• emir