restart

Formsrestarts, restarting, restarted

Pluralrestarts

1. 1
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To begin or set something in motion again after a pause or interruption.

   Both sides agreed to restart the negotiations from scratch.

   After the power outage, the factory restarted production slowly.

   Similarrecommence, rebegin, reinitiate

   Oppositestop, suspend

   Note

   Here the verb works both ways. You can restart the engine, or work can simply restart on its own. The intransitive use suits activities that resume after a halt, such as station construction suspended by an outbreak. The transitive use puts someone or something in charge of the restarting. In railway writing a locomotive restarts a train, pulling it away from a stop. Recommence is the formal equivalent.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The act of beginning something again after it has come to a stop.

   The committee called for a complete restart of the failed program.

   After several restarts, the old engine finally caught.

   Similarrelaunch, recommencement, revamp

   Note

   The noun names the moment that movement resumes, and it settles naturally into the phrase after the restart. Railway writers use it for a heavy train pulling away again after a signal stop. Rugby reporters use it for play picking up again after a break. Recommencement says the same thing more formally, while relaunch and revamp suggest starting over with changes.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To shut down a computer or device and start it up again, reloading the operating system.

   Restart the server after applying the security patch.

   The technician restarted the workstation to clear a memory error.

   Similarreboot

   Note

   In computing it is a straight synonym of reboot. The system is shut down and brought back up, which clears its volatile memory and reloads the operating system. This is usually done to recover from a fault or to apply pending changes. It is a specialized use of the general "start again" verb, and like that verb it readily takes an object: restart the server.

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