revest means to dress (a priest or other religious figure) in ritual garments, especially to celebrate Mass or another service. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
revest is pronounced /ɹiːˈvɛst/.
Why “revest” is a great word
REVEST — [Verb] To clothe again, especially in ritual garments, or to restore property or rights to a former holder. From Anglo-Norman and Middle French revestir, from Late Latin revestire, from Latin re- ("again") + vestire ("to clothe"). First attested in English c. 1300. Unlike "reinvest," which restores authority or capital, or "reclothe," a merely functional term, revest carries the weight of ceremony and legal restitution. It is the slow draping of a sacred cope, the chill of a signet ring pressed back onto a finger grown soft from exile, the musty scent of ancestral tapestries rehung in a long-empty hall—a formal reinvestiture of form, a quiet correction to history’s casual dispossessions.
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman revestir, revestre et al., Middle French revestir, and their source, Late Latin revestire, from Latin re- + to clothe.
verb
- To dress (a priest or other religious figure) in ritual garments, especially to celebrate Mass or another service.
- To reclothe; to dress again.“Her nathelesse / Th'enchaunter finding fit for his intents, / Did thus reuest, and deckt with due habiliments.”
- To return (property) to a former owner; to reinstate
- To invest again with possession or office.“to revest a magistrate with authority”
- To take effect again.