recirculate

verb

re·​cir·​cu·​late (ˌ)rē-ˈsər-kyə-ˌlāt 

recirculated; recirculating; recirculates

transitive + intransitive

1

: to circulate or cause to circulate again

According to the organization, between two and four times more money recirculates in the local community when people shop at small businesses.

—Christina Hepner

The system will recirculate 99 percent of the water that enters the tanks …

—Nick McCrea

2

: to circulate continuously

Along a slope, a peaceful water feature surrounded by rocks offers the tranquil sounds of water recirculating between two ponds.

—Kelli Adanick

He uses an American Hydroponics system that recirculates water and nutrients through the plants' root systems, allowing them to grow without soil.

—Alana Melanson

Examples of recirculate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Images from the arrests at Columbia University in 1968 and of the National Guard and local and state police shootings at Kent State and Jackson State in 1970 have recirculated in recent weeks, amid this year’s campus protest crackdowns. —Eddie R. Cole / Made By History, TIME, 4 June 2024

Add a solar-powered floating birdbath pump that sprays water to keep it recirculating. —Nan Sterman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 June 2024

All-Star Recipes to Rule Your Memorial Day Cookout Garten, whose memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens comes out on Oct. 1, frequently recirculates her recipes around their respective holidays and shares cooking tips on Instagram. —Sabrina Weiss, Peoplemag, 23 May 2024

However, the tax revenue collected had been recirculated for the past 17 years into the cinema development fund operated by the Korean Film Council and had been a crucial source of support for independent and artistic film projects. —Patrick Frater, Variety, 15 May 2024

In recent decades, fish farming practices have changed, and some countries now use recirculating aquaculture that involves using plants help to keep the water clean. —Bethany Thayer, Detroit Free Press, 11 May 2024

Scott Salmon, executive director of Friends of the White River, said these structures create sort of a sideways whirlpool that recirculates water at the dam's base rather than flushing it downstream. —Karl Schneider, The Indianapolis Star, 6 May 2024

Now, surgeons are perfusing these organs, either by removing them to a machine or, in a lower-tech manner, by recirculating blood in that region of the donor’s body. —Ted Alcorn, New York Times, 2 Apr. 2024

The machine acts as the patient's heart and lungs, removing carbon dioxide from blood and recirculating oxygenated blood. —Detroit Free Press, 22 Feb. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1716, in the meaning defined at sense 1