restore

English

Etymology

From Middle English restoren, from Old French restorer, from Latin rēstaurāre, equivalent to re- +‎ store.

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: rĭstôrʹ, IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈstɔɹ/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: rĭstôʹ, IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈstɔː/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: rĭstōrʹ, IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈsto(ː)ɹ/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈstoə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: re‧store

Verb

restore (third-person singular simple present restores, present participle restoring, simple past and past participle restored)

1. (transitive) To reestablish, or bring back into existence.

   to restore harmony among those who are at variance

   He restored my lost faith in him by doing a good deed.

2. (transitive) To bring back to good condition from a state of decay or ruin.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Mark iii:5:

     and his hand was restored whole as the other

   • 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: Jacob Tonson , and John Barber , →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     our fortune restored after the severest afflictions

3. (transitive) To give or bring back (that which has been lost or taken); to bring back to the owner; to replace.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Genesis xx:7:

     Now therefore restore the man his wife.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     Loss of Eden, till one greater man / Restore us, and regain the blissful seat.

   • 1697, Virgil, “Tityrus and Meliboeus”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     The father banish;d virtue shall restore.

   • 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:

     The plain appears like paradiſe reſtored, where the proud cypreſs and tall arreca ſeem walking by the margin of the paſſing ſtream.

4. (transitive) To give in place of, or as restitution for.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Exodus xxii:1:

     He shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.

5. (transitive, computing) To recover (data, etc.) from a backup.

   There was a crash last night, and we're still restoring the file system.

6. (transitive, music) To bring (a note) back to its original signification.
7. (obsolete) To make good; to make amends for.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 30”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. , London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, / All losses are restored, and sorrows end.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:repair

Translations

Noun

restore (plural restores)

1. (computing) The act of recovering data or a system from a backup.

   We backed up the data successfully, but the restore failed.

Related terms

• restoration
• restorative
• restorer

Anagrams

• retroes, retrose, tresero