Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To put back into a former position or place.
  • transitive verb To take the place of or fill the role of.
  • transitive verb To provide a substitute for (something broken or unsatisfactory, for example).
  • transitive verb To pay back or return; refund.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To put again in the former or the proper place.
  • To restore (what has been taken away or borrowed); return; make good: as, to replace a sum of money borrowed.
  • To substitute something competent in the place of, as of something which has heen displaced or lost or destroyed.
  • To fill or take the place of; supersede; be a substitute for; fulfil the end or office of.
  • Synonyms To reinstate, reëstablish, restore.

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

  • transitive verb To place again; to restore to a former place, position, condition, or the like.
  • transitive verb To refund; to repay; to restore.
  • transitive verb To supply or substitute an equivalent for.
  • transitive verb To take the place of; to supply the want of; to fulfull the end or office of.
  • transitive verb To put in a new or different place.
  • transitive verb (Crystallog.) a crystal having one or more planes in the place of its edges or angles.

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

  • verb transitive To restore to a former place, position, condition, or the like.
  • verb transitive To refund; to repay; to restore; as, to replace a sum of money borrowed.
  • verb transitive To supply or substitute an equivalent for.
  • verb transitive To take the place of; to supply the want of; to fulfil the end or office of.
  • verb transitive To demolish a building and build a updated form of that building in its place.
  • verb transitive, rare To place again.
  • verb transitive, rare To put in a new or different place.

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

  • verb put in the place of another; switch seemingly equivalent items
  • verb put something back where it belongs
  • verb substitute a person or thing for (another that is broken or inefficient or lost or no longer working or yielding what is expected)
  • verb take the place or move into the position of

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Prefix re- + place.

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