requite

American  

[ri-kwahyt] / rɪˈkwaɪt /

verb (used with object)

• requites,
  present (3rd person singular)
• requited,
  past participle,  past
• requiting
  present participle

1. to make repayment or return for (service, benefits, etc.).

   Synonyms:

   reimburse, remunerate, pay, compensate, recompense, reward, repay

2. to make retaliation for (a wrong, injury, etc.); avenge.

   Synonyms:

   revenge

   Antonyms:

   forgive

3. to make return to (a person, group, etc.) for service, benefits, etc.

4. to retaliate on (a person, group, etc.) for a wrong, injury, etc.

5. to give or do in return.

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requite British  

/ rɪˈkwaɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to make return to (a person for a kindness or injury); repay with a similar action

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• requitement
  noun
• requiter
  noun
• requitable
  adjective
• unrequitable
  adjective
• unrequiting
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• requiting
  present
• requited
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• requite
  simple
• requites
  simple
• have requited
  perfect
• has requited
  perfect
• am requiting
  progressive
• are requiting
  progressive
• is requiting
  progressive
• have been requiting
  perfect progressive
• has been requiting
  perfect progressive

Past

• requited
  simple
• had requited
  perfect
• was requiting
  progressive
• were requiting
  progressive
• had been requiting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will requite
  simple
• will have requited
  perfect
• will be requiting
  progressive
• will have been requiting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of requite

1520–30; re- + obsolete quite, variant of quit ¹

Explanation

You can requite a friend’s kindness by doing your friend a favor or by being kind in return. Requite means "to repay or return." To requite something is to return it. However, saying that you want to requite a gift means that you want to give something in return for it — not that you want to return the gift to the store for some quick cash. Requite is often used in the context of love; if you requite someone’s love, you love that person back. Requite can also be used in a negative sense. Someone who wants to requite an injury wants payback for it.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

requite requites requited requiting

But still I crane my neck and track them at every opportunity, hoping I suppose to requite their deep indifference for me with my high regard for them.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 27, 2013

I think that’s every girl’s dream, that this punk who doesn’t really like us and doesn’t really requite our love, that he’s going to change all the sudden.

From Time ● Jan. 28, 2013

Therefore, in "the world as it is," you must requite evil with lesser evil.

From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2011

Did Mr. Anderson requite Ms. McKinney’s love, as she insists?

From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2011

The powers of darkness would requite it, too, my mother’s parting curse would call hell’s furies to punish me, along with the scorn of men.

From "The Odyssey" by Homer

His honour loves his lady too well to make her suffer much: little as she requites his love!——

From Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 6 by Samuel Richardson

Then she asked, 'O Wardan, is this how thou requites me my favours?'

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 04 by Sir Richard Francis Burton

Cowper, even more than most writers, deserves and requites consideration under the double aspect of matter and form.

From A History of Nineteenth Century Literature (1780-1895) by George Saintsbury

And she received it in full measure; for the dear Lord requites some faithful hearts, blesses some lives that seem set apart for silent pain and solitary labor.

From Work: a Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott

And so to be even with Tisaphernes, he requites his perjury by a fair stratagem.

From Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans by Arthur Hugh Clough

Luckily for him, in Colwin’s world, the brief torture of falling in love is just prelude to the lifelong joy of finding your love requited.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 16, 2023

But there's a parallel thread of romance... a story of unrequited love that slowly became very requited indeed.

From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2022

And you might know Venus and Hermes from ancient mythology, but have you been introduced to the more obscure figures Tacita, silent goddess of death, and Anteros, god of requited love?

From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2022

But there’s something more that’s driving interest in Bennifer: the storybook nature of long-lost love requited.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2021

I’m sure I said it would be O.K., although all I remember as I ran down the hill was thinking: Oh, I’m in love, I’m in love, and I think it’s requited!

From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz

Not requiting any encouragement to get out of his seat was Fernandez's fitness coach, who would leap and shout, pointing fingers or waving clenched fists.

From Fox News ● Sep. 7, 2021

And yet, among the human lovers, she is perhaps the most active, from when she betrays her friend to score points with Demetrius, her formerly requiting unrequited crush.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2020

The beloved proletariat, so requiting during hard times, had, at first opportunity, run off with capitalism's traveling salesman.

From Time Magazine Archive

"I must say that you have the strangest mode of requiting hospitality," said Kate, haughtily.

From The Daltons, Volume I (of II) Or,Three Roads In Life by Charles James Lever

He afterwards meets a cavalier, who reveals himself as the dead man whose debts had been paid, and who is desirous of requiting that favour.

From The Science of Fairy Tales An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology by Edwin Sidney Hartland