Word.ws English Dictionary

recombobulate

recombobulate verb: to cause to think clearly again; to reorient; to put back into working order.

Verb

recombobulate (third-person singular simple present recombobulates, present participle recombobulating, simple past and past participle recombobulated)

  1. (transitive, uncommon) To cause to think clearly again; to reorient; to put back into working order.
    • Please allow me to recombobulate you. Your portrait “Oneside of Natty” frightens me as much as Amy’s sketch.1992, Natty Bumppo Lonely Hearts
    • Zoidberg: Aw, I’ll never recombobulate this ship!2002 April 14, Jeff Westbrook, “The 30% Iron Chef”, Futurama, season 3, episode 22, Fox Broadcasting Company
  2. (intransitive) To (come to) think clearly again; to reorient oneself; to get (oneself) back into working order.
    • You need a little time to recombobulate is all.2005, Stephin Merritt, The Paris Review Book of People with Problems
    • Luckily I was in the car when I drove in, so I had time to recombobulate before I got out, and didn't make any comment about the bible verses.2010 September 13, Rumpelstiltskin, “Bashing Bush and Boehner Won’t Work”, in soc.retirement (Usenet)

Synonyms of recombobulate

Antonyms

Forms of recombobulate

third-person singular presentrecombobulates
present participlerecombobulating
past participlerecombobulated
pastrecombobulated

Origin of recombobulate

Jocular formation from re- and discombobulate.

Questions about recombobulate

What does recombobulate mean?
Recombobulate means to cause to think clearly again; to reorient; to put back into working order.
What part of speech is recombobulate?
Recombobulate is a verb.
What is the past tense of recombobulate?
The past tense of recombobulate is recombobulated.

Words near recombobulate in the dictionary

  1. recombinogenesis
  2. recombinogenic
  3. recombinogenicity
  4. recombinosome
  5. recombinosomes
  6. recombobulate
  7. recombobulated
  8. recombobulates
  9. recombobulating
  10. recombobulation
  11. recombogenic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: recombobulate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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