reconvert

reconvert

English

Etymology

re- +‎ convert

Verb

reconvert (third-person singular simple present reconverts, present participle reconverting, simple past and past participle reconverted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To convert again, convert back.
   • 1664, John Exton, The Maritime Dicæologie, or Sea Jurisdiction of England, London, Chapter 8, p. 96,

     Now it could not be expected that so much sea being converted into land by this Judgement by two years labour, and but finished and brought to pass in the 6th year of Henry the Sixth, the same land should be in the very next year, viz. in the 7th year of the same Kings Reign reconverted into sea.

   • 1670, John Milton, The History of Britain, London: James Allestry, Book 4, p. 159,

     About this time the East-Saxons, who as above hath bin said, had expell’d thir Bishop Mellitus, and renounc’d the Faith, were by the means of Oswi thus reconverted.

   • 1880, Sabine Baring-Gould, Mehalah: A Story of the Salt Marshes, London: Smith, Elder, 1884, Chapter 2, p. 28,

     In ancient days the hill had been a beacon station, and it was reconverted to this purpose in time of war.

   • 1953, Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana, Penguin, 1969, Part 2, Chapter 3, p. 70,

     A small room, which had been converted into a laboratory, was now reconverted into chaos. A gas-jet burnt yet among the ruins.

   • 1960 October, “Talking of Trains: Electrics to Amersham”, in Trains Illustrated, page 584:

     The two three-car Chesham sets were re-converted for steam operation, with vacuum-controlled push-and-pull gear in 1940 or 1941, when the last of the old seven-car electric trains began to be withdrawn.

   • 1997, Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things, Thorndike, Maine: G.K. Hall, Chapter 1, p. 42,

     Reverend Ipe went to Madras and withdrew his daughter from the convent. She was glad to leave, but insisted that she would not reconvert, and for the rest of her days remained a Roman Catholic.

2. (transitive) To convert.
   • 1534, William Tyndale, transl., “A Prologe to the Fyrst Epistle of Saynt Peter”, in The Newe Testament (Tyndale Bible), Antwerp: […] Marten Emperowr, folio cccxiiii, verso:

     This epiſtle dyd ſaynt Peter wryte to the Hethen that we reconuerted ⁊ exhorteth thẽ to ſtonde faſt in the fayth […]

   • 1654, Henry Glapthorne, Revenge for Honour, London, Act I, Scene 1, p. 6,

     Gentlemen both,

     and Cozens mine, I do believe ’t much pity,

     to strive to reconvert you from the faith

     you have been bred in:

   • 1963, Margaret Bourke-White, Portrait of Myself, New York: Simon and Schuster, Chapter 28, p. 338,

     With no regular ammunition supply, they relied on whatever they could capture on raids. When it did not match their miscellaneous firearms, they were ingenious at reconverting the ammo to the weapon.

Related terms

• reconversion
• reconverter

Noun

reconvert (plural reconverts)

1. A person who has been reconverted.
   • 1843, William Ewart Gladstone, “Present Aspect of the Church” in Gleanings of Past Years, London: John Murray, Volume 5, 1879, pp. 33-34,

     […] it is notorious, that of those professing the creed of naked Protestantism, she [the Church of Rome] has made […] converts and reconverts by thousands—nay, even by millions:

References

• “reconvert”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• converter