repurposing

Pluralrepurposings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of repurpose.

   The city is repurposing a disused rail line as a walking trail.

   Instead of discarding its worn-out sails, the company began repurposing them as tote bags.

   Note

   The verb typically names the thing being changed and then what it becomes, the second after as: repurposing worn-out sails as tote bags. The new use is meant to last, and the thing itself may be altered or left just as it was; borrowing something for an afternoon is not repurposing it.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of putting something to a new and different use.

   The repurposing of former military bases into parks has reshaped several coastal towns.

   The album is a patchwork of samples, borrowed hooks, and inventive repurposings of older songs.

   Similarconversion, reuse, adaptation

   Note

   The noun takes of for the thing reused and into for what it becomes: the repurposing of former bases into parks. In the plural it counts separate instances, and it sits naturally among words for borrowing: Globalization and Contemporary Art lists repurposings beside loans, snatches and recirculations of beats and melodies between musicians in the diaspora.

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