Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To restore to an earlier condition, as by repairing or remodeling.
  • transitive verb To impart new vigor to; revive.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To renew; render as good as new; restore to freshness or to a good condition: as, to renovate a building.
  • To give force or effect to anew; renew in effect.
  • To revive; recover.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make over again; to restore to freshness or vigor; to renew.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To renew; to revamp something to make it look new again.
  • verb To to restore to freshness or vigor.
  • verb this sense?) To tear down and rebuild.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb give new life or energy to
  • verb make brighter and prettier
  • verb restore to a previous or better condition

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin renovāre, renovāt- : re-, re- + novāre, to make new (from novus, new; see newo- in Indo-European roots).]

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Examples

  • Having your parents drive through your living room so you can renovate is just bloody brilliant!

    From The Bookshelf 2006

  • Jim and the other young man took a job on their own, helping Alex Ghiselin renovate a house.

    House 1985

  • I remember what happened a few years ago when Archsodomite Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee decided to "renovate" his cathedral, tearing apart a beautiful reredos and replacing it with a grand new pipe organ !

    The stripping of the altars... in 2009 2009

  • They hope, primarily, to use it to protect the front lip of terraces (of which there are vast numbers), but they see it also as a possible way to stabilize roadsides and to protect (even "renovate") landslide areas.

    2 Case Studies 1993

  • 7 Office Design Ideas - From the home office to the enterprise, our environment affects the way we work - Office Design Gallery With the idea of renovate our office and more interaction area, I visited the Microsoft R&D Center in Grand Gateway, where my good friend Eric and Helen work.

    Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now 2009

  • 7 Office Design Ideas - From the home office to the enterprise, our environment affects the way we work - Office Design Gallery With the idea of renovate our office and more interaction area, I visited the Microsoft R&D Center in Grand Gateway, where my good friend Eric and Helen work.

    Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now 2009

  • AEG offered two plans: "renovate" and "innovate," focused on revenue-generating options such as new seating and amenities.

    The Seattle Times 2010

  • In the spring of 2006, the Wisconsin Union Directorate placed a referendum on the Associated Students of Madison ballot that gave the students the power to vote on whether to increase their segregated fees by up to $96 a semester for the next 30 years to fund the construction of a new union in place of Union South and "renovate" the Memorial Union.

    Badger Herald: News Updates 2009

  • They closed it because it would cost too much to "renovate".

    Blogger News Network 2009

  • Tehran authorities want to "renovate" the neighborhood by removing historic synagogues.

    The Jawa Report 2009

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