requital
Americannoun
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the act of requiting.
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a return or reward for service, kindness, etc.
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a retaliation for a wrong, injury, etc.
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something given or done as repayment, reward, punishment, etc., in return.
noun
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the act or an instance of requiting
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a return or compensation for a good or bad action
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of requital
Explanation
When you pay someone back or return their favor, that's requital. Your friend might insist that no requital is necessary for the cookies she gives you, but you may want to bake cupcakes for her tomorrow anyway. Use requital for the sincere return of a favor, like going to your brother's band concert after he's dutifully attended your poetry reading. You can also use it for retribution for a wrong that's been done: "As requital for the Silly String attack, she put a whoopie cushion on her classmate's chair." Requital comes from requite, which is based in the Middle English root quite, "clear or pay up."
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.
This nonsense gradually infected everything and the consequence was an underestimate which subsequently bought the bitterest requital.
From Time Magazine Archive
He registered his own opinion that all the sorrows of the war were in requital for that sin.
From Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits; A Study in Ethics, with an Epilogue Addressed to Theologians by Clark S. Beardslee
Then, I owe my life to this fair Norman; such a debt upon my honour calls aloud for a full requital.
From The Last of the Vikings by John Bowling
And then, pray that the veil of oblivion may be thrown over the fiendish requital which, in after years, succeeded this hospitable reception.
From Rambles by Land and Water or Notes of Travel in Cuba and Mexico by B. M. Norman
Helen, I swear it, by every hope that now thrills within me—" "It would be," resumed she, tremulously, "an ungenerous requital for this, were I to practise any deception on you.
From The Knight Of Gwynne, Vol. I (of II) by Charles James Lever
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.
