recycle

From re- +‎ cycle.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɹəˈsaɪkəl/, /ɹɪˈsaɪkəl/, /ɹiˈsaɪkəl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪkəl

recycle (third-person singular simple present recycles, present participle recycling, simple past and past participle recycled)

1. (transitive) To break down and reuse component materials.

   Both paper and plastic can be recycled.

   • 2024 May 29, “Network News: HS2's Bromford Tunnel portal complete ready for TBM breakthrough...”, in RAIL, number 1010, page 14:

     Recycling and reusing the material eliminates the need to import aggregate, a strategy which has avoided over 50,000 lorry movements on local roads.

2. (transitive) To reuse as a whole.
   • 2012 July 12, Sam Adams, “Ice Age: Continental Drift”, in AV Club:

     Jokes are recycled so frequently, it’s as if comedy writing was eating a hole in the ozone layer: If the audience had a nickel for every time a character on one side of the frame says something could never happen as it simultaneously happens on the other side of the frame, they’d have enough to pay the surcharge for the movie’s badly implemented 3-D.

   • 2018 February 24, Paul Rees, “Finn Russell masterminds historic Scotland victory over England”, in The Guardian‎^[1], London, archived from the original on 22 April 2018:

     He [Huw Jones] was hauled down in England’s 22 but, when the ball was quickly recycled, [Finn] Russell’s miss-pass gave Sean Maitland the room to score in the left corner.

3. (transitive) To collect or place in a bin for recycling.
   • 1990, Laurence Sombke, The Solution to Pollution: 101 Things You Can Do to Clean Up Your Environment, Sandy, Oregon: MasterMedia, p 22:

     Most cans, bottles, and jars need to be rinsed, so recycle while you are doing dishes.

   • 2003, The Complete Guide to Easy Woodworking Projects: 50 Projects You Can Build With Hand Power Tools, Minneapolis: Creative Publishing International, page 270:

     Recycling is no longer a chore when this convenient recycling center is a fixture in your kitchen.

   • 2006, Elaine Martin Petrowski, Design Ideas for Home Storage, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Creative Homeowner, page 133:

     You'll find many configurations, including models that hide behind a single cabinet door and conceal from one to three bins, so you can recycle at the same spot where you dispose of trash.

4. (intransitive, ergative) To be recycled.

   Sulfur recycles in the sulfur cycle.

5. (US) To discard into a recycling bin.
6. (US, military, transitive) To put (a person) through a course of training again.
   • 2006, Barbara Schading, Richard Schading, A Civilian's Guide to the U.S. Military, page 102:

     Recruits cannot fail this portion of their training and become a Marine. Anyone who fails may be “recycled” through training up to three more times to try again, but will be sent home if success in this program is not achieved.

7. (roller derby) To skate toward the rear of the engagement zone to maximize the time that an opposing jammer must spend before returning to the action.

   Synonym: waterfall

• → Dutch: recyclen
• → German: recyceln, recyclen

recycle (plural recycles)

1. An act of recycling.
   • 2011, C. P. Leslie Grady, Jr., Glen T. Daigger, Nancy G. Love, Biological Wastewater Treatment, Third Edition, page 189:

     First, there will be little reaction in the settler so that the concentrations of soluble constituents in the recycle stream are the same as those in the bioreactor. Because all soluble concentrations are the same, the recycle of soluble constituents around the system has no impact on system performance.

   • 2020, Gary Gray, MUD on MY BADGE:

     If the agency does not approve recycle of the cadet who failed to qualify, the cadet is sent home and is not hired by the department who sponsored him or her in the academy.

•   recycling on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.sikl/

recycle

1. inflection of recycler:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• Audio:

  (file)

recycle

1. inflection of recyceln:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative