regain

English

Etymology

From Middle French regaigner (French regagner). By surface analysis, re- +‎ gain.

Pronunciation

• (verb) IPA^(key): /ɹiːˈɡeɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

  • Rhymes: -eɪn
• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈɹiːɡeɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: re‧gain

Verb

regain (third-person singular simple present regains, present participle regaining, simple past and past participle regained)

1. (transitive) To get back; to recover possession of.
   • 2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Sarkozy's total will be seen as a personal failure. It is the first time an outgoing president has failed to win a first-round vote in the past 50 years and makes it harder for Sarkozy to regain momentum.

Derived terms

• regain one's senses

Translations

to get back, to recover possession of

• Bulgarian: възвръщам си (vǎzvrǎštam si)
• Catalan: reconquerir (ca)
• Dutch: herkrijgen (nl)
• Finnish: saada takaisin
• French: reconquérir (fr), reprendre (fr)
• German: wiedergewinnen (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἀναλαμβάνω (analambánō)

• Haitian Creole: reprann
• Italian: riprendere (it), riappropriarsi, recuperare (it), riguadagnare, riavere (it)
• Old Galician-Portuguese: cobrar
• Polish: odzyskać (pl)
• Portuguese: reconquistar (pt)
• Spanish: recobrar (es)
• Swedish: återfå (sv), återvinna (sv)

Noun

regain (plural regains)

1. The act or process of regaining something.
   • 2019, Sameera Khan, Regain Be Gone:

     Patients who plateau after weight loss are more likely to blame the regain on something that they are responsible for – the wrong course of action they took or a specic oversight that they kept repeating–rather than who they are.

   • 2021, Sam Hudson, Football in a Pandemic:

     By beginning deeper, this allows the opposition to start and build much higher, naturally luring them away from their own goal. As long as the actions after a regain are then quick, forward, and performed with quality, counter-attacks can prove a particularly useful attacking strategy to win football matches.

   • 2021, Sandra Van Vlierberghe, Arn Mignon, Superabsorbent Polymers, page 155:

     The samples with SAPs showed a regain in strength when stored in an RH of more than 90%.

   • 2022, Antonella Versaci, Hocine Bougdah, Natsuko Akagawa, Conservation of Architectural Heritage, page 375:

     Negative collective memories are effective, as much as positive memories, in choosing a regain for lost heritage building associated with them.

2. (textiles) The amount of width a woven cloth grows by when the fibers swell, used to determine the width of the reed to use in weaving.
   • 1912, National Association of Cotton Manufacturers, Transactions of the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers, page 105:

     The number of ends per inch may vary to some slight extent at different places in the width of the cloth and in different pieces woven to the same particulars , but if the regain is correctly estimated , the calculated reed to be used will be the same, unless a special reed has been used in weaving the cloth.

   • 2008, J. W. S. Hearle, W E Morton, Physical Properties of Textile Fibres, page 190:

     In particular, at high humidities the regain of wool is lower.

   • 2017, Sabit Adanur, Wellington Sears Handbook of Industrial Textiles, page 590:

     Because of the fiber price per pound, and the size of the lots, the regain must be determined accurately.

Anagrams

• gainer, Gearin, anigre, Regina, regian, Angier, Reagin, Arenig, inrage, raigne, regina, Negari, earing, reagin, Gainer, graine, Aigner, in gear

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French regain. By surface analysis, re- +‎ gaaignier (“to till”).

Noun

regain m (uncountable)

1. second crop (typically of grass)
2. renewal
3. upsurge

Further reading

• “regain”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.