requite
Americanverb (used with object)
-
requites,
present (3rd person singular)
-
requited,
past participle, past
-
requiting
present participle
-
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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
requitesimple
-
requitessimple
-
have requitedperfect
-
has requitedperfect
-
am requitingprogressive
-
are requitingprogressive
-
is requitingprogressive
-
have been requitingperfect progressive
-
has been requitingperfect progressive
Past
-
requitedsimple
-
had requitedperfect
-
was requitingprogressive
-
were requitingprogressive
-
had been requitingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
The act doesn’t requite that he sign the letter.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 21, 2019
It would requite a lobotomy in order to speak as they do. paulejb Not difficult at all, Hollywood.
From Time ● Jul. 24, 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
And since the Grand-duke has come back and brought This army of the North which thus requites His filial South, we leave him to be taught.
From The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Volume IV by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
In his gentle ethics the evil men do him he requites with goodness.
From The Cruise of the Snark by Jack London
One kiss for all others requites me, Although it is never to be, And sweetens my dreams and invites me: 'Tis the kiss that she dare not give me.
From The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell by James Russell Lowell
After the inscription, "John Durer, formerly Minister to his Majesty the Emperor of Germany," the old man had written— "Heaven requites ingratitude."
From The Children's Portion by Robert W. Shoppell
In other words, one is devoted to a friend when one knows him well, is true as steel to him, and basks in the sunshine of a love that requites that fidelity.
From Explanation of Catholic Morals A Concise, Reasoned, and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals by John H. (John Henry) Stapleton
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
Landon Donovan will get his first chance to see if his new passion will be requited when he coaches the San Diego Loyal of the second-tier USL Championship.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2021
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
And love is not love if it’s not requited, right?
From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon
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
For without this reference all punishing and requiting would be an outrage without justification, and indeed merely the addition of another evil to that which has already occurred, without meaning or significance.
From The World As Will And Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer
Carcassonne had never forgotten the obligation, was never weary of seeking opportunities of requiting it.
From Tales from Blackwood Volume 8 by Various
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.
