re·store / riˈstôr/ • v. [tr.] bring back (a previous right, practice, custom, or situation); reinstate: the government restored confidence in the housing market. ∎  return (someone or something) to a former condition, place, or position: the effort to restore him to office isn't working. ∎  repair or renovate (a building, work of art, vehicle, etc.) so as to return it to its original condition: the building has been lovingly restored. ∎  give (something previously stolen, taken away, or lost) back to the original owner or recipient: the government will restore land and property to those who lost it through confiscation.DERIVATIVES: re·stor·a·ble adj.re·stor·er n.

restore give back; build up again; reinstate; renew, re-establish XIII; bring back to an earlier condition XIV. — OF. restorer (mod. restaurer):- L. restaurāre; see RE-, STORE vb.
So restoration action of restoring; (R-) re-establishment of the monarchy in England in 1660. XVII. Later form (assim. to the vb.) of restauration (XIV) — (O)F. or late L. restorative adj. and sb. XIV. var. of †restaurative (XIV) — OF. restauratif, -ive.

restore To reset to an earlier value. For example, when a process is about to be restarted on a processor, the contents of the working registers of the processor must be restored to the values they last held when the process was previously running.