Redeploying

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To transfer personnel or equipment to a different assignment or site for optimized usage
2. Moving staff or equipment from one location to another to improve efficiency
3. Reassigning workers or tools to alternate duties or places to better meet needs

Etymology: "Redeploying" is the present participle of "redeploy," so its history is that of the verb itself. The core is "deploy," which came into English from Old French "desployer," meaning to unfold or spread out, and that sense still lingers in the idea of a banner or sail being unfurled. Military writers later took the word to describe spreading troops into position for battle, and from there it broadened to any arrangement of forces, people or resources. The prefix "re-" means "again" or "back," so "redeploy" carries the sense of unfolding or spreading something once more, typically to a new position. The Latin "re-" it descends from is the same prefix found in "return" and "repeat." The verb's meaning in everyday use is simply shifting staff or resources from one post to another, a move that is often nothing more dramatic than reassigning someone to a different desk.

Synonyms: reassigning, redistributing

Antonyms: withdrawing