rehabilitate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb help to readapt, as to a former state of health or good repute
    • The prisoner was successfully rehabilitated
    • After a year in the mental clinic, the patient is now rehabilitated
  2. verb reinstall politically
    • Deng Xiao Ping was rehabilitated several times throughout his lifetime
  3. verb restore to a state of good condition or operation

WordNet

Re`ha*bil"i*tate transitive verb
Etymology
Pref. re- re- + habilitate: cf. LL. rehabilitare, F. réhabiliter.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Rehabilitated present participle & verbal noun Rehabilitating
Definitions
  1. To invest or clothe again with some right, authority, or dignity; to restore to a former capacity; to reinstate; to qualify again; to restore, as a delinquent, to a former right, rank, or privilege lost or forfeited; -- a term of civil and canon law.
    Restoring and rehabilitating the party. Burke.

Webster 1913