- recover
- recover 1 Recover, regain, retrieve, recoup, recruit can mean to get back something that has been let go or lost.Recover, the most comprehensive of these terms, may imply a finding or obtaining something material or immaterial that has been lost{
recover a lost watch
}{recovered his health
}{recover peace of mind
}{recovered his balance
}or a getting of something in reparation or compensation{recover damages in a lawsuit
}Regain, though often used interchangeably with recover, carries a stronger implication of winning back or getting once more into one's possession something of which one has been deprived{regain a fortress
}{regain a person's good will
}{regained his sight
}{regained freedom
}Regain also may imply, as recover seldom implies, success in reaching again a place or point at which one has been before{in his efforts to regain his hotel— Meredith
}{the trench allowed the performers, after being thrust down into perdition, to regain the greenroom unobserved— Quiller-Couch
}Retrieve implies a recovering or regaining after assiduous effort or search{desperate efforts to retrieve lost territory
}{it now seemed impossible to retrieve the foreign trade lost by war
}{his desire to retrieve his military reputation— Belloc
}{marveling at the silent untiring activity with which her popularity had been retrieved— Wharton
}But retrieve sometimes takes for its object such words as loss, error, failure, or disaster, then implying not recovery but a setting right or a making what is bad good, or a reparation by making up for what was wrong or unsuccessful{life is not long enough to retrieve so many mistakes
}{one false step is ne'er retrieved— Gray
}{he is to retrieve his father's failure, to recover the lost gentility of a family that had once been proud— Brooks
}Recoup, basically a legal term implying a rightful deduction by a defendant of part of a claim awarded to a successful plaintiff in a lawsuit, can in its general and extended use imply recovery or retrieval, usually in equivalent rather than identical form, of something lost{able to recoup his gambling losses by more careful play
}{Elizabeth had lost her venture; but if she was bold, she might recoup herself at Philip's cost— Froude
}Recruit fundamentally implies growth through fresh additions; in military use it can imply an increase in numbers through drafting and enlisting or a filling of vacancies in a force resulting from casualties{it was his custom to recruit his army with conquered people— Newton
}In more general use it may imply a regaining of what has been lost (as vigor through illness, or money through extravagance or heavy expenditures) by fresh additions or replenishment of the supply{recruiting his strength with a good plain dinner— Dickens
}{[the middle class] is continually recruited from the capitalist families— Shaw
}Analogous words: redeem, reclaim (see RESCUE): *compensate, offset, balance2 *improve, recuperate, convalesce, gain
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
