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Glite Dictionary
to reinfest

to reinfest

1 7.4
To have pests again in a place or on an animal after you remove them
  • verb
  • /ˌriːɪnˈfɛst/
: reinfestar
  • After successfully eliminating the pests, the landlord was dismayed to find that they would soon reinfest the building.

Examples

  • Currently available fire ant bait toxicants harm nontarget ant species, making it easier for fire ants to reinfest an area.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Chemical bait treatments alone are not sustainable because fire ants will reinfest previously treated areas.

    Academic text (2004)

  • Those insects reinfested the private pastures," says Smith.

    Academic text (1996)

  • To prevent the crops from being reinfested, the farmers decided to rotate their planting schedule.

  • If left untreated, the area can easily be reinfested by pests within a matter of weeks.

Antonyms

to eradicate
84 6.6

Remove something harmful completely, for example a disease or pest

How Severe

to overrun
28 4.8
to reinfest
1 7.4
to infest
89 4.4

Surface Forms

reinfest infinitive
reinfested past
reinfested past participle
reinfesting present participle
reinfests third person singular

Morphology

reinfest = infest (transparent) = re + infest

The meaning is a straightforward repetition of the action in 'infest', namely to infest again after a prior infestation.

Etymology

Reinfest is made of the prefix re- meaning 'again' and infest meaning 'to fill with pests', so it literally shows pests coming back. A helpful image is fleas or cockroaches returning after treatment, which is exactly why reinfest means to become or make infested again.