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🦽 To help recover 🎖️ To restore status 🏚️ To restore
to rehabilitate

to rehabilitate

12 6.6
To give someone back their job or position after they were dismissed
  • verb
  • /ˌriːəˈbɪlɪˌteɪt/
translation icon : rehabilitar
  • After several years of scandal, the politician is trying to rehabilitate his career and regain the trust of voters.

So on the one hand, in Putin's Russia, the tsars are rehabilitated as heroes of Russian statehood.

Examples

  • There was no effort to rehabilitate and reintegrate the vanquished power.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Dean Berman is trying to rehabilitate their image, get them to do something outstanding.

    Step Sisters (2018)

  • But this could help rehabilitate your image.

    The Social Network (2010)

  • One way to do that was to rehabilitate the losers.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Meanwhile, the government was going out of its way to project a rehabilitated image of itself.

    Blog text (31)

  • With Pauli's support, Jordan was "rehabilitated" after the war.

    Academic text (1999)

  • After her "conversion," the novelist sets about rehabilitating her image and humanizing her character.

    Academic text (1993)

  • John Brennick is thoroughly rehabilitated... and is hereby granted a full pardon.

    Fortress (1992)

  • In the 1990s, the Konar government rehabilitated Keita as a nationalist hero, downplaying his failures.

    Academic text (2003)

  • Enlightened policies—the Marshall Plan—sought to rehabilitate and reintegrate the vanquished powers.

    Academic text (1994)

Synonyms

to restore
vsto rehabilitate
234 3.8

Make someone feel healthy and full of energy again

is about returning to former social position or public status, not health
to reinstate
vsto rehabilitate
110 5.8

To return a person or thing to a previous position like a job

is used mainly after disgrace or dismissal, often in political contexts
to revive
vsto rehabilitate
104 4.2

Make something active or popular again after a time of being forgotten

is used for restoring a former role or status rather than activity
to redeem
vsto rehabilitate
57 6.1

Make someone or something respected again after a mistake

focuses on bringing back a former position or status, not just reputation
to recommission
vsto rehabilitate
  • Specialized
1 7.3

To give someone back their officer rank, often in the armed forces

is used more for civilian or political offices rather than military ranks

Antonyms

to dismiss
70 3.3

To remove someone from their job

to disgrace
62 4.5

To make someone lose respect or honor by doing something shameful

to purge
49 6.3

To remove unwanted substances, things, or people by cleaning

How Restored

to reinstate
110 5.8
to rehabilitate
12 6.6
to vindicate
54 8.6

Surface Forms

rehabilitate infinitive
rehabilitated past
rehabilitated past participle
rehabilitating present participle
rehabilitates third person singular

Morphology

rehabilitate = habilitate (semi-transparent) = re + habilit + ate

The prefix 're-' signals restoration, but 'habilitate' is not a common base in modern English, so restoring someone's status is partly inferable but requires world knowledge.

Etymology

The word rehabilitate comes from the Latin parts re- 'again' and habilis 'able', the same root as the English word able. So, to rehabilitate someone in politics is to make them 'able again' in the public eye and bring them back to their former position.