reverse engineer
verb
reverse engineered;
reverse engineering;
reverse engineers
Definition of reverse engineer
: to disassemble and examine or analyze in detail (a product or device) to discover the concepts involved in manufacture usually in order to produce something similar
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Examples of reverse engineer in a Sentence
They reverse engineered the software.
Recent Examples on the Web
In public-key cryptography, data is secured by math problems that are easy to solve, but hard to reverse engineer. — Quanta Magazine, "A Tricky Path to Quantum-Safe Encryption," 8 Sep. 2015 Efforts to reverse engineer this kind of online-dependent gameplay for historical games often face severe technical and legal roadblocks. — Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, "Guitar Hero TV’s planned shutdown spurs false advertising lawsuit," 20 Sep. 2018 This has happened before, most famously when Soviet engineers reverse engineered the Sidewinder air-to-air missile. — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, "What Happens to a Cruise Missile Captured by the Russians," 26 Apr. 2018 This is a secret recipe that fans have reverse engineered and shared online, basically a mix of ketchup and mayo with Worcestershire sauce and spices added. — Larry Olmsted, USA TODAY, "This fast-food chain serves one specialty," 30 May 2018 The company, which helps automakers reverse engineer each other’s products, revealed significant problems, especially with fit and finish. — NBC News, "After flubbing a Consumer Reports recommendation, Tesla makes amends," 22 May 2018 Let’s reverse engineer this set based on its final result: How could a team, on a game-deciding possession, convince four opposing defenders to clear the paint after creating a clear mismatch in the post? — Rob Mahoney, SI.com, "The Simple Brilliance Behind Brad Stevens's After-Timeout Plays," 9 May 2018 Five countries have purchased the weapon; China has reportedly reverse engineered a version of its own. — Paul Scharre, WSJ, "Meet the New Robot Army," 11 Apr. 2018 Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch and many more star in this Academy Award-winning drama. 7) Paycheck (2003) Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck ) is a reverse engineer hired by companies to hack their competitors. — Sarah Bracy Penn, Harper's BAZAAR, "11 Movies Leaving Netflix in December," 22 Nov. 2016These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'reverse engineer.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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