Word.ws English Dictionary

recycled

recycled is the simple past and past participle of recycle.

Meaning of recycle

Verb

recycle (third-person singular simple present recycles, present participle recycling, simple past and past participle recycled)

  1. (transitive) To break down and reuse component materials.
    • Both paper and plastic can be recycled.
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To reuse as a whole.
    • Jokes are recycled so frequently, it’s as if comedy writing was eating a hole in the ozone layer: If the audience had a nickel for every time a character on one side of the frame says something could never happen as it simultaneously happens on the other side of the frame, they’d have enough to pay...2012 July 12, Sam Adams, “Ice Age: Continental Drift”, in AV Club
  3. (intransitive, transitive) To collect or place in a bin for recycling.
    • Most cans, bottles, and jars need to be rinsed, so recycle while you are doing dishes.1990, Laurence Sombke, The Solution to Pollution: 101 Things You Can Do to Clean Up Your Environment, Sandy, Oregon: MasterMedia, p 22
  4. (ergative, intransitive) To be recycled.
    • Sulfur recycles in the sulfur cycle.
  5. (US) To discard into a recycling bin.
  6. (US, transitive) To put (a person) through a course of training again.
    • Recruits cannot fail this portion of their training and become a Marine. Anyone who fails may be “recycled” through training up to three more times to try again, but will be sent home if success in this program is not achieved.2006, Barbara Schading, Richard Schading, A Civilian's Guide to the U.S. Military, page 102

See all 8 meanings of recycle

Adjective

recycled (not comparable)

  1. That has been through a recycling process.
    • This cardboard is made from recycled paper.

Antonyms of recycled

Words formed from recycled

Questions about recycled

What does recycled mean?
Recycled means that has been through a recycling process.
What is recycled the simple past and past participle of?
Recycled is the simple past and past participle of recycle.
What part of speech is recycled?
Recycled is an adjective.

Words near recycled in the dictionary

  1. recycle trucks
  2. recycleable
  3. recycleables
  4. recyclebot
  5. recyclebots
  6. recycled
  7. recycler
  8. recyclers
  9. recycles
  10. recyclic
  11. recycling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: recycled (page history and authors); recycle (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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Cite this entry: “recycled.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/recycled. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.