regreenv.
/rᵻˈɡriːn/, U.S. /ˌriˈɡrin/ transitive. To make green again; esp. to re-establish plant growth. Also figurative.In quot. 1942 intransitive with passive meaning: to become green again.
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1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. ii. ii. 387 As the Sommers sweet-distilling drops..Re-greens the Greens [Fr. fait reverdir les prez], and doth the flowers re-flower.
1857 M. Faraday in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 147 178 Gold which had been re-greened by agate pressure acted in like manner on the polarized ray.
1942 Econ. Geogr. 18 22/2 When new growth starts in the spring these oranges ‘regreen’ and if allowed to remain on the trees until they are fully ripe, they appear immature.
1984 Dun's Business Month (Nexis) Nov. 58 ‘We have really just finished half the job,’ he says. ‘Now we have to regrow and regreen the business.’
1985 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 28 May c1 Infected with this species [of fungus], trees..are three times as likely to survive,..and more than 1,000 acres of strip-mined land..have been regreened with its help.
2007 N. P. Money Triumph of Fungi viii. 157 Later, the rocks show an abundance of fern spores, suggesting that the postapocalyptic landscape was quickly regreened.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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