verb
- to contaminate again; to make impure or polluted once more after having been cleaned or purified
Usage: technical; environmental science
Examples
- The cleanup crew was careful not to recontaminate the soil they had just treated.
- Improper handling of medical equipment can recontaminate sterile surfaces.
- Heavy rains threatened to recontaminate the water supply that had been purified.
- Scientists worried that the oil spill cleanup efforts might recontaminate nearby areas.
- The laboratory protocol prevents workers from recontaminating clean samples.
- Industrial runoff could recontaminate the river that environmental groups had worked to restore.