payback

[pey-bak]

noun

1. the period of time required to recoup a capital investment.

2. the return on an investment.

   This fund yields a payback of 15 percent tax-free.

3. the act or fact of paying back; repayment.

4. something done in retaliation.

   Excluding them from her wedding was a vicious payback for years of being snubbed.

verb phrase

1. 1. to repay or return; pay off.

      Graduates from this program are successfully paying back their student loans.

   2. to retaliate against or punish.

      She paid us back by refusing the invitation.

   3. to requite.

Word History and Origins

Origin of payback¹

First recorded in 1955–60; noun use of verb phrase pay back

Example Sentences

Hogg, who joined Exeter from Glasgow in 2019, was spared jail time when sentenced in Selkirk Sheriff Court in January and was instead ordered to complete a community payback order with one year of supervision.

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His alleged accomplice told police that Quintero wanted to zip-tie Franco’s family before robbing him as payback for a drug deal gone wrong.

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While the mockery and memes may feel good as snickering payback and certainly stoke the Democratic base — boosting Newsom’s presidential hopes — Mahan suggested they are ultimately counterproductive.

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Jackson’s father, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, wrote shortly after the incident on X that his son “was told that he could get his ‘payback’ in the ring” after Smith hit Jackson before the event.

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The revenue payback “will certainly have a chilling effect,” Handley told me, because the government fee “might make the initial investment appear uneconomical.”

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Related Words

• compensation 
• reimbursement