restore

Formsrestores, restoring, restored

Pluralrestores

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To bring something back to good condition after it has fallen into decay or ruin.

   Volunteers spent years working to restore the crumbling cathedral.

   The museum carefully restored the ancient mosaic that flooding had damaged.

   Similarrenovate, repair, refurbish, rebuild

   Oppositedamage, destroy

   Note

   Older English applied this sense to bodies and fortunes as readily as to buildings. The King James Bible of 1611 has a withered hand "restored whole as the other," and Matthew Prior in 1718 writes of "our fortune restored after the severest afflictions." The modern craft use for cathedrals and mosaics is one branch of a wider idea: making whole again whatever has decayed.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To set up again or bring back into existence.

   The treaty restored diplomatic relations after decades of hostility.

   Engineers worked through the night to restore power to the city.

   Similarreestablish, reinstate, revive, renew

   Note

   Latin rēstaurāre lies behind it, by way of Old French restorer and Middle English restoren, and in English the word reads as re- plus store. This is the broadest use: bringing back what had ceased to exist. It takes abstract objects comfortably, such as harmony among people at variance, someone's lost faith, or relations and order, and the thing restored is often described as lost or broken.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To give back something that has been lost or taken, returning it to its owner.

   The court ordered the gallery to restore the painting to the family it was seized from.

   After the appeal, officials restored her confiscated property.

   Similarreturn

   Oppositeconfiscate

   Note

   The grammar is worth watching here. The King James Bible of 1611 says "restore the man his wife," putting the receiver first with no preposition, the way give works. Modern usage favors restore something to someone, as in restoring a painting to its family. Milton's "one greater man / Restore us" stretches it further, so that the people themselves are brought back to what they lost.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To recover data or a system from a backup copy.

   The technician restored the database from last night's backup.

   If the drive fails, you can restore everything from the external disk.

   Similarrecover

   Note

   Computing borrowed the word for getting data back from a saved copy. The usual pattern is restore something from a backup, and the object can be a single file, a database or a whole file system. Because the job can run for hours after a crash, it often appears in progressive forms such as "we're still restoring." The same spelling also serves as the noun for the operation.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   In computing, the recovery of data or a whole system from a backup copy.

   The restore completed successfully overnight.

   A failed restore can leave the system in an inconsistent state.

   Similarrecovery

   Note

   The verb turned noun, and in technical talk it behaves as a countable noun: a restore, the restore, a failed restore. It is the natural partner of backup, since one makes the copy and the other relies on it. The two often share a sentence, as when the data was backed up successfully but the restore failed. Restores complete, fail or run overnight.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To give something in place of what was lost, or as compensation for it.

   The insurer restored the cost of the wrecked vehicle in full.

   They offered to restore the equivalent value of the spoiled shipment.

   Similarreimburse, refund, repay

   Note

   Restitution here need not be like for like. In the King James Bible of 1611 the offender "shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep." The construction is restore X for Y, and what is handed over can exceed what was taken. That sets it apart from returning the thing itself, where the very object that was lost goes back.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To bring a note back to its original pitch, canceling a previous sharp or flat.

   Two bars later, a flat sign restores the B to the pitch the key signature gives it.

   Young pianists often forget to restore the G in the measure after it was raised.

   Note

   Musicians restore a note when it returns to the pitch the key signature gives it after an accidental has altered it. Which sign does the restoring depends on the key: where B is flat in the signature, a flat sign restores a B that had been raised. The common slip is reading on as if the alteration still held, instead of hearing the note as restored.

Showing meanings only. Show all 8