reboot

Formsreboots, rebooting, rebooted

Pluralreboots

1. 1
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To run a computer's startup sequence again, resetting it and reloading the operating system, often after a crash.

   The technician rebooted the server after installing the security patch.

   When the update stalls, reboot the machine to clear the error.

   Similarrestart, reset

   Note

   A computing verb that works in both directions: you can reboot the system, or the system can reboot by itself once updates are installed. The machine can be the object or the subject without any change to the verb. Built simply from re- plus boot, it reaches well beyond desktops: in 2008 Dennis Overbye wrote in The New York Times of NASA trying to reboot the Hubble Space Telescope.

   Leave the router alone and it will reboot on its own in a minute.

   If the phone freezes during the update, it may reboot without warning.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A single instance of restarting a computer so that the operating system reloads.

   The crash required a full reboot before the system responded.

   Most major updates need a reboot to take effect.

   Similarrestart

   Note

   The countable noun behind the computing verb, built from re- plus boot: one more run of the startup sequence. It counts like any event (a reboot, two reboots) and often takes full, as in a full reboot after a crash. Unlike the storytelling reboot, nothing is reimagined; the same system simply comes back as it was.

3. 3
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To make a fresh start, beginning anew rather than continuing along the old path.

   The company rebooted its marketing strategy after years of decline.

   He took a year off to reboot and rethink his career.

   Similarrelaunch, revamp, refresh, restart, overhaul

   Note

   The verb of the fresh-start noun, and it will take almost any object: a business, a campaign, a television series. Charles M. Blow paired it with rebrand in 2016, urging Donald Trump to rebrand and reboot his campaign. The two make a natural pair, one changing how a thing looks and the other how it runs.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A fresh start in which something begins again rather than continuing from where it left off.

   The struggling brand launched a full reboot of its public image.

   After the scandal, the party promised a reboot of its leadership.

   Similarrelaunch, revamp, overhaul, restart, makeover

   Note

   The computing word applied to everything else. Thomas L. Friedman, in The New York Times in 2008, wanted America not just bailed out but rebooted. By 2020 Florence Fabricant could write of reboots of beloved restaurants. The noun keeps its machine logic, shut down and start clean, and it pluralizes freely when the fresh starts are many.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To restart something or return it to its original configuration or state.

   Like wiping a whiteboard clean to begin the lesson over from nothing.

   Engineers reboot the server whenever the software stops responding.

   The director chose to reboot the franchise rather than continue the original storyline.

   Similarrestart, reset, relaunch

   Note

   Here the thing being reset can be any system with a starting state, even a living one. J. Morris Hicks writes of egg farmers who reboot birds' internal clocks so the hens start laying faster and at the same time. The sense stays close to the computer sense: something is returned to its initial setting, not reinvented.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A restart of a series' storyline that discards all previous continuity, telling the story over from scratch.

   The studio announced a reboot that erased decades of comic-book history.

   Critics praised the reboot for reimagining the characters from the ground up.

   Similarremake, reimagining

   Note

   Narratology's term for wiping the slate. A reboot keeps the title and characters but throws out what happened to them, so earlier installments no longer count as part of the story. That clean break is what separates it from a sequel or spin-off, which build on established events. Using the word for a continuation is the disputed looser use.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A restart of a series' storyline that keeps the previous continuity intact rather than discarding it.

   The so-called reboot actually preserved every event from the earlier seasons.

   Marketing labeled the revival a reboot, though the original continuity remained.

   Similarsequel, spin-off

   Note

   A widely criticized use that is nonetheless everyday in entertainment reporting. Variety called Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin a reboot of the original series, and Clea Skopeliti used the same label for the return of Sex and the City. Careful writers save reboot for a clean break and call a story that keeps its history a sequel or a spin-off.

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