Other forms: rebuilt, rebuilding, rebuilds
To rebuild is to build something again after damage. Rebuild the wall, rebuild the team, rebuild trust.
It covers physical reconstruction and the slower kind: rebuilding a career, rebuilding trust, rebuilding a squad after relegation. The figurative sense implies that what was there before was worth having, which is why nobody rebuilds a bad system — they replace it. Note the past is rebuilt; and that a rebuild as a noun is common in engineering and in sport.
1verbrebuildTo build something again after damage.
“After the earthquake, it took years to rebuild the town.”
2verbrestoreTo restore something slowly, like trust.
“After the scandal, the company worked hard to rebuild customers' trust.”
rebuild is a building again.
Middle English
bylden
English
build
English, today
rebuild
Built from
From re- + build. build comes from Middle English bylden. From Middle English bilden, bulden, bylden, from Old English byldan and bytlan, bytlian (“to build”), from Proto-West Germanic buþlijan (“to build”), from Proto-Germanic buþlą, bōþlą (“house, dwelling, farm”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰuH- (“to become, grow, thrive, be, live, dwell”). Related to Old English botl (“building, house”). More at bottle#Etymology_2. bilden.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA