Recycle

Origin

From - + cycle.

Verb

1. (transitive) To break down and reuse component materials.Recycled paper.Recycled plastic.
2. (transitive) To reuse as a whole.
• 12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental DriftJokes 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.
3. (transitive) To collect or place in a bin for recycling.
4. (intransitive, ergative) To be recycled.Sulfur recycles in the sulfur cycle.

Derived terms

• recyclable
• recyclability
• recycle bin