restarted

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of restart.

   The technician restarted the server to apply the latest update.

   The match had to be restarted once the floodlights came back on.

   Note

   A regular -ed form that serves as both simple past and past participle. Because restart works with or without an object, two patterns are natural: she restarted the laptop, and the laptop restarted on its own. Only the first can become passive (the laptop was restarted). With computers it overlaps with rebooted. Context keeps it apart from the online insult spelled the same way.

2. 2
   adjectiveeuphemistic

   Euphemistic form of retarded. Internet slang insult, still widely considered offensive.

   Half the comments called the new policy restarted before the thread got locked.

   He kept posting restarted hot takes until the moderators stepped in.

   Note

   An online insult in disguise: it borrows the spelling of the ordinary past tense of restart to stand in for retarded in its "extremely stupid" use. The softening is only on the surface. The base word is offensive and derogatory, and this one carries the same jab, usually in a mocking question such as "Are you restarted?" Rarted and r-slurred play the same game, and none of them is safe in polite or professional writing.

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