recompense
Americanverb (used with object)
-
recompenses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
recompensed,
past participle, past
-
recompensing
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
recompenses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
recompensed,
past participle, past
-
recompensing
present participle
noun
-
compensation, as for an injury, wrong, etc..
to make recompense for the loss one's carelessness has caused.
- Synonyms:
- satisfaction, indemnification, amends, payment
-
a repayment or requital, as for favors, gifts, etc.
-
a remuneration or reward, as for services, aid, or the like.
verb
-
(tr) to pay or reward for service, work, etc
-
(tr) to compensate for loss, injury, etc
noun
-
compensation for loss, injury, etc
to make recompense
-
reward, remuneration, or repayment
Synonym Usage
See reward.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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recompensernoun
-
underrecompenseverb (used with object)
-
recompensableadjective
-
unrecompensableadjective
-
unrecompensedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
recompensesimple
-
recompensessimple
-
have recompensedperfect
-
has recompensedperfect
-
am recompensingprogressive
-
are recompensingprogressive
-
is recompensingprogressive
-
have been recompensingperfect progressive
-
has been recompensingperfect progressive
Past
-
recompensedsimple
-
had recompensedperfect
-
was recompensingprogressive
-
were recompensingprogressive
-
had been recompensingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of recompense
1375–1425; (v.) late Middle English < Middle French recompenser < Late Latin recompēnsāre, equivalent to Latin re- re- + compēnsāre ( see compensate); (noun) late Middle English < Middle French, derivative of recompenser
Explanation
Say you loan a few bucks to a friend who is short on cash, and he wins the lottery. Presumably, he'll be able to recompense you, or pay you back what he owes. If you look closely at recompense, you'll see how similar it is to compensate, which means to make amends for something or to pay. Add the prefix re-, which suggests returning or repeating, and you get the meaning of recompense — paying back or reimbursing financially or otherwise. Recompense is most often used as a verb, but it works as a noun, too. In recompense for throwing peas and screaming, a mother might send a toddler to her room for a time-out.
Vocabulary lists containing recompense
The Tragedy of Macbeth
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Oedipus the King
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And without legal recompense, the only check to this power appears to be other armed men.
From Slate ● Jan. 29, 2026
Here Mr. Stoppard managed to impart a few slivers of his deep knowledge of literary history while exploring the universal theme of a love that cannot find expression or recompense.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 30, 2025
"That settlement for Zach allowed him the opportunity to have some kind of recompense but more importantly, to be able to make some memories," said Anna-Louise.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2025
His children, Tala and Adnan El Sabbagh, “feel they were robbed of things they treasured and worked hard for with no apparent recompense in sight.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2025
Did it feel as bad as having some fifty thousand books annihilated with no recompense?
From "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury
These works are among the great recompenses that experience offers us.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 19, 2014
“The Case for Reparations” is deeply focused on economic injuries and recompenses.
From Washington Post
They were beloved, honoured, respected and the recompenses the Emperor might have bestowed upon them, instead of tending to alienate France, would have fulfilled her wishes.
From Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815, Vol. I by Fleury de Chaboulon, Pierre Alexandre Édouard, baron
To rear the flower, to assist in unfolding its excellences, and bring forth its fruit in due season, is a work that delightfully recompenses the toil of the cultivator.
From The Annals of the Poor by Richmond, Legh
The artist was rewarded for his labour with smiles, money, compliments, a most affectionate squeeze of the hand, and a pressing invitation to dinner; in a word, he was overwhelmed with recompenses.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 by Various
Kennedy wasn’t extorted off the bench or recompensed for his vacancy.
From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2018
"And it came cheap. Unlike hotels where the proprietors had to be recompensed for their time, the Pavilion was a civic building without any clear purpose."
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2014
One need not be a political ideologue, he says, to believe that people have quantifiable value and deserve to be recompensed for it.
From New York Times ● May 5, 2013
It is right that the players should be financially well recompensed for what they do.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 16, 2013
When the negotiations were concluded, the gods and Skadi had agreed that she would be recompensed for her father’s death in three ways.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
Still, Treyzon said that does not deter his suit from examining the platform’s value in recompensing class-action members.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 12, 2019
The IRS seized Nelson’s belongings in 1991 to start recompensing the approximate $32m he owed in taxes at the time.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 15, 2015
His good nature and justice did farther appear in his manner of recompensing his domestics, and by his liberality to the poor.
From On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening, with Biographical Notices of Them, 2nd edition, with considerable additions by Felton, Samuel
Who keeps his reputation still, For recompensing good with ill With more than Pandemonium's skill?
From Punch 1893.07.29 by Various
I accuse you, therefore, of entering France to play the spy on us, recompensing us for our hospitality with the most abominable treason.
From The Downfall by Robins, E. P.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
