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
-
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:
Because China values its access to America’s capital markets, now is the time to seek recompense for American bondholders.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
And without legal recompense, the only check to this power appears to be other armed men.
From Slate ● Jan. 29, 2026
Grandparents have demanded money as recompense for having spent years caring for a grandson taken in battle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2025
Having a visible tan in Victorian times was a clear sign you were poor working class and probably spent most of your time hawking barrels of hay for very little recompense.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2025
Perhaps he sees something meaningful, how this might be a test and a recompense.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
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
The vulgar, insatiable curiosity of the general world breeds such traitors as these makers of post-mortem recollections; breeds them, nourishes them, recompenses them.
From Critical Studies by Ouida
If you are willing to devote your heart and soul to this one task, another recompense is in store for you—a multitude of sublime recompenses.
From Heart and Soul by Maveric Post by Victor Mapes
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
"Currently there isn't any effective way for creators to be recompensed when their work is downloaded and stored by audiences," he said.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2021
Kennedy wasn’t extorted off the bench or recompensed for his vacancy.
From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2018
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
In the year 1854 Seigniorial Tenure was abolished, the Government recompensing the seigniors for the surrender of their ancient rights and privileges, and freehold tenure, as in Ontario, was introduced.
From Ontario Teachers' Manuals: History by Ontario. Ministry of Education
And has this same Sir Stafford never taken any steps towards recompensing you?
From The Daltons, Volume I (of II) Or,Three Roads In Life by Charles James Lever
"What! by recompensing kindness with treachery?" she said, glancing at him mournfully.
From Under False Pretences A Novel by Adeline Sergeant
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.
