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Glite Dictionary
to reinsure

to reinsure

1 7.0
To give part of the risk of paying big losses to another company
  • verb
  • /ˌriːɪnˈʃʊr/
  • Specialized
translation icon : reasegurar
  • And they've been brought over to test various emissions, and the insurance companies won't reinsure them.
  • shipping companies

Examples

  • The company decided to reinsure its assets with another firm to spread the financial risk.

  • A friend of ours did think that it's insufficiently reinsured.

    Howards End (1992)

  • Explain the term "reinsure."

    Fiction book (1991)

  • As the cost of this could be in the trillions, despite the very low risk, any insurance company would have to reinsure a liability of this nature, as there are not many insurance companies big enough to take a risk of this nature.

    Blog text (5)

  • The distressed agent told him that Lloyd's of London had reinsured this packet of gems.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • It suggests that the federal government might opt to reinsure shipping companies in the event that private insurance proves insufficient to cover the cost of ransoming mariners.

    Academic text (2011)

  • After evaluating the potential liabilities, they chose to reinsure with a larger insurance provider.

  • To manage the risks associated with their new policy, they opted to reinsure part of it through an alternate insurer.

Surface Forms

reinsure infinitive
reinsured past
reinsured past participle
reinsuring present participle
reinsures third person singular

Morphology

reinsure = insure (semi-transparent) = re + insure

The prefix 're-' clearly adds the idea of doing 'insure' again, but this sense is used in the specialized insurance meaning of transferring or sharing risk with another insurer.

Etymology

Reinsure is from re- meaning 'again' and insure meaning 'to protect with insurance'. So, to reinsure is to 'insure again' when one insurance company asks another company to share or take some of the risk.