requite
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to make repayment or return for (service, benefits, etc.).
- Synonyms:
- reimburse, remunerate, pay, compensate, recompense, reward, repay
-
to make retaliation for (a wrong, injury, etc.); avenge.
- Synonyms:
- revenge
- Antonyms:
- forgive
-
to make return to (a person, group, etc.) for service, benefits, etc.
-
to retaliate on (a person, group, etc.) for a wrong, injury, etc.
-
to give or do in return.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of requite
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.
Vocabulary lists containing requite
The Tragedy of Macbeth
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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Beowulf
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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.
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
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.
