reimburse
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to make repayment to for expense or loss incurred.
The insurance company reimbursed him for his losses in the fire.
- Synonyms:
- redress, recoup, indemnify, remunerate, recompense
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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reimbursementnoun
-
reimbursernoun
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nonreimbursedadjective
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reimbursableadjective
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unreimbursableadjective
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unreimbursedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
reimbursesimple
-
reimbursessimple
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have reimbursedperfect
-
has reimbursedperfect
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am reimbursingprogressive
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are reimbursingprogressive
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is reimbursingprogressive
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have been reimbursingperfect progressive
-
has been reimbursingperfect progressive
Past
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reimbursedsimple
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had reimbursedperfect
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was reimbursingprogressive
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were reimbursingprogressive
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had been reimbursingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of reimburse
First recorded in 1605–15; re- + obsolete imburse “to put into a purse, pay,” from Medieval Latin imbursāre, equivalent to Latin im- im- 1 + Medieval Latin -bursāre, derivative of bursa “bag” ( see purse)
Explanation
If you buy a basketball for your school team with your own money, and you ask your coach to reimburse you, you are asking him to pay you back. To reimburse is to compensate for an expense or loss. The person who collects money at a college is the bursar, a purse is where you store money, and reimburse means to pay money back. All three of these words share the Latin root bursa 'moneybag.' If you want to be paid back for overpaid tuition, ask the bursar, Mr. Moneybags, to reimburse you from the schools purse.
Vocabulary lists containing reimburse
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Richard Nixon's "Checkers" Speech (1952)
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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:
The federal lawsuit claims the AI company oversold usage allowances on its priciest Claude chatbot tiers and asks for Anthropic to reimburse its customers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
In his appeal, Bankman-Fried's legal team argued that even if customer funds were used without consent, the investments made with them would have generated high enough returns to reimburse everyone.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
According to the State Board of Equalization, the state does not reimburse local governments for the property tax revenue losses from the Disabled Veterans’ Exemption.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026
Analysts at Citi said investors were focusing on the gross order value guidance, particularly as DoorDash has a program costing $50 million per quarter to reimburse drivers for increased gasoline costs.
From MarketWatch ● May 7, 2026
He could reimburse the government for all the people and property he had destroyed and still have enough money left over to continue buying Egyptian cotton.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Medicare reimburses providers for the use of skin substitutes for wound care.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026
Finding the right size hasn’t been easy: UnitedHealth’s medical cost ratio—the amount it reimburses patients as a percent of insurance revenue—has risen for each of the past three years, pressuring margins.
From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reimburses the Medicare Advantage plan for the administration of Medicare benefits.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2025
This reimburses you for nonrefundable travel expenses like prepaid vacation packages or vacation rentals, cruises, tours, tickets and transportation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2025
In one class of case, offences committed in the admiralty jurisdiction, i.e. outside England, the treasury directly reimburses to the local authorities the expense incurred.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 6 "Coucy-le-Château" to "Crocodile" by Various
She alleges that Meta ultimately reimbursed a fraction of the charges.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
Costs associated with film production — including the writer, director and producer fees — have been reimbursed by the Representation Project, tax filings show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
Tegan contacted the groomers after the trip to the vets but, while they reimbursed her initial £385 vet fees, she claimed they had not offered an apology or explanation.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
The affair erupted in November with the collapse of Banco Master, crushed under the weight of $7 billion in debt to 800,000 depositors who were later reimbursed by the government.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
“I’m not going to get reimbursed for all the food I fed it.”
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
By the time he returned to Congress in early 2024, the House was reimbursing members for lodging expenses in Washington.
From Salon ● May 29, 2026
He also bolstered the employee health plan and started reimbursing his workers’ commuting expenses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
Your son is also responsible for paying creditors and reimbursing people who paid for certain expenses, like the funeral, out of pocket.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 18, 2025
During oral arguments, Barrett grappled with the question of reimbursing such revenue, wondering if it would be a "complete mess".
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2025
When Eliot’s mother arrived at quarter to six, Mr. Sen told her the details of the accident and offered a check reimbursing November’s payment.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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.
