Retread

From re- + tread ("grooves carved into the face of a tire") noun

Full definition of retread

To replace the traction-providing surface of a vehicle that employs tires, tracks or treads.

(plural retreads)

A used tire whose surface, the tread, has been replaced to extend its life and use.
(military, slang) a person who re-entered military service in World War Two after serving in World War One.

1950, Air Force Association, United States Army, Air Force Magazine:In Our War the Retreads usually slinked in over-aged, over-weight and overcautious in the face of a new generation.
1971, Brian Garfield, The thousand-mile war: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians:They were retreads and recruits under a small cadre of Regular Army officers and noncoms.
1976, James Jones, Art Weithas, WW II: a chronicle of soldiering:We retreads upset everybody.
2006, Keith E Bonn, When the Odds Were Even:As with the 100th Division, many of the replacements joining the 103d were "retreads" from the technical services or antiaircraft and aviation troops...

From re- + tread verb

1818, Mary Shelley, FrankensteinAs a child I had not been content with the results promised by the modern professors of natural science. With a confusion of ideas only to be accounted for by my extreme youth and my want of a guide on such matters, I had retrod the steps of knowledge along the paths of time and exchanged the discoveries of recent inquirers for the dreams of forgotten alchemists. Besides, I had a contempt for the uses of modern natural philosophy.

(plural retreads)

(sometimes figurative) A return over ground previously covered; a retraversal or repetition.

1998, Frank Rich, Hot seat: theater criticism for the New York times, 1980-1993But The West Side Waltz is otherwise a tedious retread of Mr. Thompson's previous effort, On Golden Pond.