Definition of recruit

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< recrudesce

recta >

re·cruit    (r-krt) KEY 

VERB:
re·cruit·ed, re·cruit·ing, re·cruits
VERB:
tr.

1. To engage (persons) for military service.
2. To strengthen or raise (an armed force) by enlistment.
3. To supply with new members or employees.
4. To enroll or seek to enroll: colleges recruiting minority students.
5. To replenish.
6. To renew or restore the health, vitality, or intensity of.

VERB:
intr.

1. To raise a military force.
2. To obtain replacements for or new supplies of something lost, wasted, or needed.
3. To regain lost health or strength; recover.

NOUN:

1. A newly engaged member of a military force, especially one of the lowest rank or grade.
2. A new member of an organization or body.

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ETYMOLOGY:
French recruter, from obsolete recrute, recruit, variant of recrue, from feminine past participle of recroître, to grow again, from Old French recroistre : re-, re- + croistre, to grow (from Latin crscere; see ker-² in Indo-European roots)

OTHER FORMS:
re·cruiter(Noun), re·cruitment(Noun)