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
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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:
A consumer is demanding that Anthropic reimburse customers of its priciest artificial intelligence subscription plans, alleging in a new lawsuit that the company oversold the usage allowances it offered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
The government didn’t reimburse the fishermen for the trips back from El Salvador and didn’t cover medical expenses for those injured in the attacks, the crew members said.
From Los Angeles Times ● 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
I’m fronting the cost and they’ve agreed to reimburse me via rent credits.
From MarketWatch ● May 5, 2026
Their homes might have been worth half a million dollars, but they still expected Armpit’s boss to reimburse them five bucks if Armpit accidentally stepped on a daffodil.
From "Small Steps" by Louis Sachar
The organization licenses her films and reimburses costs to her production company.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
For example, it’s found a way it thinks Medicare could save $156.9 billion by changing how it reimburses doctors for certain outpatient services.
From MarketWatch ● May 14, 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
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
Popular Science reimburses at the rate of $3.00 for each photograph, and sometimes more.
From Making Your Camera Pay by Davis, Frederick C.
In several markets reviewed by Elevance, surgeons performing spinal procedures are typically reimbursed $7,000 to $12,000, while out-of-network neurologists remotely monitoring them are winning upwards of $40,000 in arbitration.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
I bought such a policy, and it’s why nearly all my prepaid travel expenses were reimbursed.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026
The family has been reimbursed for the ID card fees by the Welfare Association, and is due to receive additional support.
From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026
Child-care advocates are supporting new legislation, Assembly Bill 1981, to lock in a timeline that would allow providers to be reimbursed for their services at increasing rates.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
His aunt talked a lot about money, how much the boy was costing her, the hassle of filling out the paperwork to get some of the money reimbursed.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
We also should consider treating food like medicine, with insurers and government payers reimbursing or heavily discounting healthy food and dietary programs that clearly lead to disease regression.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
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
Another thing that’s likely to be messy and lengthy is any process of reimbursing money that companies paid to the U.S. government under the now invalid tariffs.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 20, 2026
The Freedom of Information request also said that SWR spent more than £370,000 reimbursing passengers for hotels and taxis due to delays and cancellations.
From BBC ● Oct. 20, 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.
