rejoin

English

Etymology

French rejoindre; pref. re- re- + joindre to join. See join, and compare rejoinder.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈd͡ʒɔɪn/, /ɹiːˈd͡ʒɔɪn/
• Hyphenation: re‧join
• Rhymes: -ɔɪn

Verb

rejoin (third-person singular simple present rejoins, present participle rejoining, simple past and past participle rejoined)

1. To join again; to unite after separation.
   • 2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 75:

     Soon after departure, we cross the invisible border into Scotland to enjoy more stunning coastal scenery, before the line finally swings inland at Burnmouth to traverse pine-clad valleys, shadowed by the A1 trunk road until we rejoin the coast at Cove, east of Dunbar.

2. To come, or go, again into the presence of; to join the company of again.
   • c. 1733-38, Alexander Pope, “Imitations of Horace”, in William Warburton, editor, The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, volume II, published 1807, page 60:

     Meet and rejoin me, in the pensive grot:

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
     , Episode 16

     The pair parted company and Stephen rejoined Mr Bloom who, with his practised eye, was not without perceiving that he had succumbed to the blandiloquence of the other parasite. Alluding to the encounter he said, laughingly, Stephen, that is:

   • 2012 May 13, Andrew Benson, “Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     Williams had a problem fitting his left rear tyre and that left Alonso only 3.1secs adrift when he rejoined from his final stop three laps later.

3. (archaic) To state in reply.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, chapter 4, in Moonfleet, London, Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934:

     'Be careful what you do,' rejoined another man's voice that I did not know, 'lest someone see you digging, and scent us out.'

4. (archaic, intransitive): To answer to a reply.
5. (law, intransitive) To answer, as the defendant to the plaintiff's replication.
6. (patent law, nonstandard) in US patent law To re-insert a patent claim, typically after allowance of a patent application, applied to patent claims that had been withdrawn from examination under a restriction requirement, based on rejoinder (patent law).

References

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “rejoin”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• Joiner, joiner