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Glite Dictionary
💪 To get back ♻️ To reuse waste 🪑 To cover again
to recover

to recover

1 3.9
Take useful materials from waste to use again
  • verb
  • /rɪˈkʌvər/
  • Specialized
: recuperar
  • So that is the high value material that we want to recover from wastewater in general.
  • recover and recycle
  • recover materials
  • recover and reuse

That pretty well anything given enough energy, right, you should be able to concentrate, to recover, to purify, to separate.

Examples

  • In the process of recycling, we work to recover valuable resources from various waste streams.

  • Local experts say the value of the recovered art could run as high as $300 million.

    Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001)

  • Gold mines use cyanide to help recover the gold from the dirt.

  • And the new technology of "fracking" now makes it possible to recover previously unrecoverable "tight oil" from shale deposits.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Up-front sorting is done manually to recover glass, corrugated cardboard, newspaper, plastic bottles, and film plastic.

    Academic text (1999)

  • The recycling plant is designed to recover metals and plastics from discarded products.

  • Our company aims to recover usable materials from the waste generated during production.

Synonyms

to recycle
vsto recover
148 2.6

Change old materials so people can use them again

is about obtaining usable parts from waste rather than processing them fully
to salvage
vsto recover
107 4.4

To save something from damage or loss

focuses specifically on obtaining usable materials from waste for reuse
to scavenge
vsto recover
20 6.4

To search through rubbish for useful things

emphasizes planned getting of materials and reuse rather than informal foraging
to reclaim
vsto recover
3 3.7

To take useful materials from waste so they can be used again

focuses more on getting materials often for later industrial reprocessing

Antonyms

to discard
100 2.7

To throw something away because you no longer want or need it

How Recovered

to recycle
148 2.6
to recover
  • Specialized
1 3.9
sort
3 1.3
to collect
768 1.1

Surface Forms

recover infinitive
recovered past
recovered past participle
recovering present participle
recovers third person singular

Morphology

recover = cover (semi-transparent) = re + cover

The 'recover materials' sense aligns with 'get back' implied by 're-', but it is not a literal 'cover again', so learners may need context to map to 'retrieve/reclaim'.

Etymology

Recover in the recycling sense comes from the same idea: re- 'again' plus capere 'to take', so to recover materials is to 'take them back' from waste and use them again, like recycling.