reimburse
Americanverb (used with object)
-
reimburses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
reimbursed,
past participle, past
-
reimbursing
present participle
-
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
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reimbursernoun
-
nonreimbursedadjective
-
reimbursableadjective
-
unreimbursableadjective
-
unreimbursedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
reimbursesimple
-
reimbursessimple
-
have reimbursedperfect
-
has reimbursedperfect
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am reimbursingprogressive
-
are reimbursingprogressive
-
is reimbursingprogressive
-
have been reimbursingperfect progressive
-
has been reimbursingperfect progressive
Past
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reimbursedsimple
-
had reimbursedperfect
-
was reimbursingprogressive
-
were reimbursingprogressive
-
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:
Ross and Wynn are asking the court to overturn the tax and reimburse them for the costs of this lawsuit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
After the $250 annual deductible for each dog, the policy was supposed to reimburse up to 80% of covered veterinary expenses.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
Berney in his email offered to reimburse Afram’s company for the missing drive or create a new digital cinema package, but Afram said the damage was much greater than that, according to the lawsuit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
But it doesn’t specify whether the government will pay companies for their work or reimburse them for operational costs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
In 2009 the city also decided to reimburse all the fines charged to black citizens who had participated in D-day.
From "While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement" by Carolyn Maull McKinstry
The Justice Department says Blanche’s campaign “appearances are reviewed and cleared by the Department’s ethics officials” and that he reimburses travel expenses “in accordance with federal law, regulations, and policies.”
From Slate ● Sep. 24, 2026
But the company stumbled last year, tripped up by rising medical costs and changes to how the government reimburses private insurers.
From Barron's ● May 1, 2026
The bill would also rename a state program that reimburses ranchers who lose livestock to wolves, calling it the Wolf-Livestock Coexistence and Compensation Program.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2026
Put this in writing: Treat your children’s payments as buying equity, or allow them to earn the right to the home, or set up a trust that reimburses them at death.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 10, 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
Many of these prescriptions were ultimately billed to or reimbursed by federal healthcare programs, the Justice Department claimed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
The city was awarded a $300,000 grant from the vehicle authority to cover most of the cost of its cameras in fiscal year 2026, none of which has been reimbursed, according to the agency’s records.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
As it extends to the west of the country, participating bus operators will be reimbursed by public body Transport Scotland.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
Questions also arose about whether the Clippers were properly reimbursed for Leonard’s expenses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
“I’m not going to get reimbursed for all the food I fed it.”
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
Some have proposed reimbursing fishers or using acoustic deterrents instead of mass slaughter.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026
However, you could ask for some changes in how frequently they are reimbursing you and how much they are covering.
From MarketWatch ● May 5, 2026
As of March, the company is reimbursing his monthly loan payments of around $250.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
In the second case involving alleged misconduct, the city agreed to settle by producing the records and reimbursing the paper’s legal costs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 11, 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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
