refit
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɹiːfɪt/
rhymes: -iːfɪt
ipa: /ɹiːˈfɪt/
rhymes: -ɪt
Forms: form: refits
form: refitting
form: refitted
form: refitted
form: refit
form: refit
Etymology: From re- + fit.
Senses: examples: text: 1677, Philip Meadows, A Narrative of the Principal Actions Occurring in the Wars Betwixt Sueden and Denmark, London: A.C. and H. Brome, pp. 122-123,
The truth is they made no great scruple, at least for that one time, to come under the Stern of their Neighbouring Common-wealth, thereby to have better leisure to recollect and refit the scattered planks and pieces of their own broken Republic.
text: […] I have seen a Man ride with both his feet upon the Saddle, take off his Saddle, and at his return take it up again, refit, and remount it, riding all the while full speed;
ref: 1685, chapter 48, in Charles Cotton, transl., Essays of Michael, seigneur de Montaigne, volume 1, London: T. Basset and W. Hensman, page 558:
text: Michelangelo took a group outside and in full view of the papal troops refitted the fallen, shattered stone into the walls.
ref: 1961, Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Book 9, p. 554:
text: […] for the next half-hour I looked on, fascinated, while his large soft hands took apart the entire pump and refitted the parts.
ref: 1978, André Brink, Rumours of Rain, Penguin, published 1984, page 51:
glosses: To fit again; to put back into its place.
examples: text: to refit a garment; to refit ships of war
text: But these [aqueducts] by the sloth and carelesness of the Greeks and Turks falling to decay and rendred useless, were restored and refitted by the Emperor Suleiman, who was so intent upon this great work, that he said he would go on with it, although the laying every stone stood him in a purse of money […]
ref: 1678, Thomas Smith, Remarks upon the Manners, Religion and Government of the Turks, London: Moses Pitt, page 323:
text: […] all the three theatres have been repeatedly altered, and refitted, and enlarged, to make them capacious of the crowds, that nightly flock to them;
ref: 1797, Edmund Burke, A third letter to a Member of the present Parliament: on the proposals for peace with the regicide directory of France, London: F. and C. Rivington, pages 138–139:
text: The allied fleet, having been speedily refitted at Portsmouth, stood out again to sea.
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “[HTTPS://ARCHIVE.ORG/DETAILS/HISTORYOFENGLAND04MACAUOFT CHAPTER 19]”, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 364:
text: His girth required Donal Noye to take apart a mail hauberk and refit it with leather panels at the sides.
ref: 1996, George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones, New York: Random House, published 2003, page 260:
text: From there, teams would work for two days refitting the carriages and the cabs, before moving to pre-testing and quality control. The units were then ready to re-enter service.
ref: 2025 July 23, Richard Wilcock, “A new dawn for the Electrostars”, in RAIL, number 1040, page 27:
glosses: To prepare for use again; to repair or restore.
examples: text: For what can be more comfortable then to be asserted from the power of the grave, and rescued from death and mortality, to have our Soul refitted with Organs, and all the bodily powers awakened again so as to lose nothing by our fall;
ref: 1679, John Goodman, chapter 5, in The Penitent Pardoned, London: R. Royston, page 332:
text: 1697, John Dryden (translator), Virgil’s Aeneis, Book 1, lines 776-777, in The Works of Virgil, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 224,
Permit our Ships a Shelter on your Shoars,
Refitted from your Woods with Planks and Oars;
glosses: To fit out or supply again (with something).
examples: text: 1669, uncredited translator, Memoires of Henry, D. of Guise, London: Henry Herringman, Book 5, p. 499,
[…] I discovered two Gallies making towards Nicita, whom I saluted with two Cannons, which I levelled and fired my self, so happily, that one of them being shot through between wind and water, was fain to go off to refit, and the other had three or four slaves killed.
text: As soon as we were out of danger, we came to anchor and refitted;
ref: 1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 9, in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, volume 2, London: for the author, page 117:
text: A little to leeward of this was a small cluster of islands, where we were going to refit, abounding with delicious fruits […]
ref: 1847, Herman Melville, chapter 9, in Omoo:
text: “She’s a cargo ship, isn’t she?” she asked. “Goods, and that?”
 I nodded. “She hasn’t got anything in her now. She’s just come up from Falmouth in ballast. She’s come in to refit.”
ref: 1932, Nevil Shute, chapter 6, in Lonely Road, London: Heinemann:
text: The Leinster has been in use as a hospital ship and a transport, but is now released and is refitting for her regular service.
ref: 1946 March and April, “Notes and News: Anglo-Irish Steamship Fleets”, in Railway Magazine, page 118:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To prepare a vessel for use again (e.g. by replenishing depleted supplies or doing maintenance or repair work); (of a vessel) to be prepared for use again.
Derived terms: refitment
refitter
refitting
Related terms: retrofit