What does "revest" mean?

To dress (a priest or other religious figure) in ritual garments, especially to celebrate Mass or another service.

What is a synonym for "revest"?

Common synonyms include: give back, put back, reactivate, reconstitute, recruit, reenact.

//ɹiːˈvɛst// verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Verb

1
To dress (a priest or other religious figure) in ritual garments, especially to celebrate Mass or another service. obsolete
2
To reclothe; to dress again.
"Her nathelesse / Th'enchaunter finding fit for his intents, / Did thus reuest, and deckt with due habiliments."
3
To return (property) to a former owner; to reinstate
4
To invest again with possession or office.
"to revest a magistrate with authority"
5
To take effect again. intransitive

"Her nathelesse / Th'enchaunter finding fit for his intents, / Did thus reuest, and deckt with due habiliments."

From Anglo-Norman revestir, revestre et al., Middle French revestir, and their source, Late Latin revestire, from Latin re- + to clothe.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.